


These Stars Will Guide Us Home

by theartofbeinganerd



Series: Astronaut AU [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Astronaut AU, F/M, Fluff, I Can't Believe I'm Starting Another Multi-Chapter Fic, Long-Distance Relationship, May Be More Characters Showing Up Later, Pregnancy, Yikes, like REALLY long distance, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-04-25 06:39:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 31,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14373075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theartofbeinganerd/pseuds/theartofbeinganerd
Summary: It's been ten years since Jemma Simmons and her best friend Leo Fitz lost contact after high school; it's been two and a half weeks since she found out that he was an astronaut and sought him out before his upcoming launch to the International Space Station; it's been two weeks since Fitz confessed his love for her and they had a whirlwind engagement.And, as Jemma's about to find out, it's also been two weeks since she got pregnant with her childhood best friend and future husband's child - and, all while he has to spend the next six months literally off in space.*A prompted sequel to my Astronaut AU one shot*





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: "prompt for you!! i love your astronaut au so much so i was wondering what would happen if that turned into a baby fic? xD"
> 
> (The original Astronaut AU is ch 54 of my fic collection, Tethered, and now is posted in its own fic, The Way Our Horizons Meet; it's most likely necessary to read that first.)
> 
> *Title taken from All of the Stars by Ed Sheeran, which is honestly like the perfect song for this fic??
> 
> Look, okay, I know - I *know* that I shouldn't be starting another multi-chapter fic when I have two already waiting to be finished. But, here's the thing: I started writing this to take a little break from canon one shots one night, but halfway through I had the horrifying realization that there was no way that I could make this a one shot, so here we are. I only have this chapter written, I have a vague idea of where I want to go, and I can't guarantee consistent updates, but I'm going to try my best! I hope you enjoy regardless!

“You promise that you’ll keep your minds open?” Jemma asked, just once more to be sure, wincing a bit as she anxiously tapped her index finger against her phone.

A pair of exasperated sighs could be heard clearly over the line, and it had a brief smile ticking her lips up at the corners. “ _Yes dear, we promised as much already, didn’t we?_ ” her mother pointed out, remarkably patiently, all things considered – they’d been on the phone for roughly about fifteen minutes now, and she’d yet to get to the reason as to _why_ she’d scheduled this little chat with them.

Her parents had moved back to Sheffield a handful of years after she’d graduated from high school and was settled in at university, and with the time difference and three busy schedules to maneuver, it wasn’t always easy to get them all on the phone at the same time. When she’d insisted on it, though, they’d had to have known that _something_ was up.

Switching her phone from her left side to her right, Jemma absently began toying with her brand new engagement ring with her thumb, letting out a sigh before attempting to _delicately_ ease them into it. “Well, I have some news. Some _good_ news, that is. I know, Mum, that you’re always asking about my love life every time we speak, and there hasn’t been anything to report for…well, admittedly, some time, but… But, the thing is, I’ve met someone.” She frowned, though, shaking her head and quickly correcting, “No, not ‘met’ someone, just…I, well, I’m in love with him. _God_ , am I in love with him. And…and, well I just wanted to let you know that I’m getting married.”

There was a beat, then her clearly shocked mother asked, “ _You’re – Jemma, how long were you…how long have you been together? I don’t understand, we just talked a few weeks ago and you never mentioned him!_ ”

“Yes, but…but that’s because we…” Jemma squeezed her eyes closed, then confessed in a rush, “we weren’t together yet.”

She’d barely gotten the words out before her mother demanded breathlessly, “ _What_?”

“ _Jemma Anne_ ,” her father gasped, “ _what are you_ thinking _? You must barely know this boy_ –”

“It’s Fitz!” Jemma interrupted to blurt out before they could scold her any further, and she held her breath as she waited for some kind of response to the information. At first, they went completely silent, and she bit her lip anxiously, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she prompted warily, “Mum? Dad?”

She heard something like a sigh of… _relief_ over the line, then her father whispering, “ _Thank god_.”

Then, her mother _laughed_ , of all things, sounding near tears as she asked, “ _Why didn’t you say that first, sweetheart? I didn’t even know you two had gotten back in touch! Goodness, we’d always_ hoped _– Fitz is just the sweetest young man, isn’t he? A perfect match for you, I’ve always said_.”

Utterly bewildered by her parents’ reactions, Jemma blinked a couple of times, finally managing to question incredulously, “You’ve _always_ said? Why didn’t you ever mention it to me?! I didn’t even realize – not until Fitz brought it up, at least.”

“ _Well, darling, you can be a bit stubborn about these types of things_ ,” her father reminded her gently. “ _I imagine you would’ve just denied it straight off the bat._ ”

“I wouldn’t –” Jemma started to deny the claim, but cut herself off when she realized abruptly that she’d only be proving her father’s point for him if she continued. Instead, she hastily changed the subject, asking hopefully, “Does this mean that you’re alright with it, then? With us getting married?”

“ _Of course we are_ ,” her mother answered, surprising Jemma with just how _sure_ she sounded. “ _Truthfully, I’m just happy that you aren’t calling to tell us that you’ve already eloped_.”

Jemma felt herself flushing at that, shrugging guiltily, even though they couldn’t see it, as she admitted, “Well…we _did_ talk about it, but in the end, we decided that maybe that was pushing things just a bit, I mean, given that we’d just begun a romantic relationship. So, we settled for as soon as he got home instead. And, well, we had a feeling that our parents and friends would’ve been _very_ upset with us if we had, of course.”

Both her parents laughed at that, and her father told her mock-sternly, “ _We sure would have been; smart thinking, there, dear._ ”

She rolled her eyes fondly, then threw a glance at the alarm clock on her bedside table, informing them hurriedly, “I’m sorry, I have to go; Fitz is going to be calling soon.”

“ _Oh, tell him that we say hello!_ ” her mother requested.

“ _And that I’ll be having a chat with him as soon as he’s back from his little space trip_ ,” her father added.

“ _Dad_ ,” Jemma groaned in reply, shaking her head. She spent a couple more minutes saying her goodbyes and promising to talk to them again soon to let them know more about the wedding, before ending the call.

Setting her phone aside, she then tugged her laptop closer across her mattress, opening it in order to wait, rather impatiently, for the video call from Fitz. They hadn’t had much chance to talk since he’d left, given that he’d been getting settled in at the space station after arriving, so it’d been nothing more than a few short phone calls here and there. But, they’d planned to video chat today, and she was practically vibrating with nervous excitement, tapping her fingertips anxiously against the keys of her keyboard.

Then, finally, Jemma saw that she had an incoming call, and she bit her lip against a beaming grin as she accepted it with a shaking hand. It took a moment to connect, but then Fitz’s face filled her screen, and she could hold back on her grin no more.

“Hi,” she whispered, feeling absurdly close to tears – she’d gone _ten years_ without seeing him before a couple of weeks ago, but now even just fourteen days had been too much for her.

“ _Hi_ ,” he replied softly, wearing a face-splitting smile of his own. He let out an audible breath, shaking his head as he murmured, “ _Wow, you’re…you’re so beautiful, Jemma_.”

Jemma flushed pleasantly at the compliment, incredibly glad now that she’d put all that time into doing her hair and makeup and choosing a cute outfit just to sit in front of her computer screen. “Thank you, Fitz.” Clearing her throat, she then told him, “I…I just got off the phone with my mum and dad.”

Fitz appeared nervous all of a sudden, and she could see him shifting around in his seat a bit, scratching at his stubbled cheek. “ _Oh…um, yeah? How’d that go?_ ”

Laughing in amusement at his obvious apprehension, she assured him, “Fitz, you can calm down – they love you just as much now as they did back when we were kids.”

He looked surprised, leaning in a bit closer to his webcam as he asked disbelievingly, “ _Really? Even after you told them that we’re getting married?_ ” She nodded. “ _Did you tell them that it was after just a couple of hours together?_ ” She nodded. “ _Did you tell them that it was set for as soon as I got home?_ ” She nodded. “ _Did…did you tell them about the field?_ ”

At that, Jemma frowned briefly, wondering what he meant by ‘the field’, whether it referred to his love confession, his proposal, or… “ _Fitz_! Why in the world would I tell my parents about us having sex in a field just a half hour after our first kiss?!”

It definitely had been a memorable first time together, making love beneath the stars – and, quite fitting for their unique relationship, as well. The only thing that Jemma regretted about it, however, was that it had only been the one time; Fitz had asked her to marry him out of the blue, she’d agreed with far more excitement and haste than he’d obviously been expecting, and they’d subsequently gotten dressed and left when Fitz insisted that he get her a ring to wear so that it was official. By the time they’d returned to where he was staying, he’d had to finish preparing his things for the trip and they’d only had a short amount of time left to say their goodbyes before he had to go.

Fitz shrugged expressively, replying defensively, “ _Well, I don’t_ know _, but my point was simply that if they knew about it, they wouldn’t be okay with me marrying you!_ ”

She rolled her eyes at his theatrics; all these years, and he was still the same _Fitz_. “Well, I’m not going to tell them, and I don’t think that you will, so we should be good.” Pausing briefly, she then told him, “Really Fitz, they were _happy_. In fact, they’d apparently always hoped that we’d get together, and thought that you were a ‘perfect match’ for me – and they even said to tell you hello.”

He arched his eyebrows in pleasant surprise, a little grin playing on his lips at that. “ _Really? Well, I always knew that I liked your parents. Good people with good taste, that’s what I’ve always said._ ”

Jemma scoffed at him, but couldn’t help but ask as the thought occurred to her, “Have you told your mum yet?”

He grimaced as he admitted, “ _No, I haven’t – we’ve talked briefly since I got here, but she’s always on her way out the door, either going to the store, or to meet some of her friends, or out on a date._ ” Wryly, he went on, “ _I don’t know when my mum passed me on the social scale, but it’s getting a bit ridiculous. We do have a phone date planned soon, though, and I’m going to tell her then._ ” When Jemma nodded in reply, nervously playing with the ends of her hair, he promised, “ _Jemma, it’ll be fine – my mum_ loves _you. Always thought of you as the daughter she never had, actually. In fact, every time we spoke in the past decade, practically the first thing she’d ask would be ‘have you heard from Jemma’._ ”

“Oh come on, I _know_ you’re exaggerating to make me feel better, Fitz,” Jemma insisted, though the effort did help just a bit.

Widening his eyes to show his sincerity, though, Fitz told her, “ _No, I’m not! It was hard enough for me to get myself to stop thinking about you all the time, but it was even_ harder _with my mum constantly getting after me to contact you._ ” Offering her a warm, reassuring smile, he went on, “ _Jem, she’s going to be over the moon when I tell her_.” Then, suddenly, a slow smile spread across his face. “ _Metaphorically, of course. If anyone’s_ literally _over the moon, it’s me_.”

Jemma groaned loudly at the bad joke even as she fought a smile, dropping back against the pillows behind her as she told him, “Keep that up, and I’m not going to marry you at all!”

“ _Hey, I’m an astronaut and I’m in_ space _– I’m allowed to make all the space jokes that I want to!_ ” Fitz replied defensively.

Just then, a short knock on Jemma’s bedroom door sounded through the room, followed almost immediately by Daisy sticking her head in to ask, “Hey Jem, what do you want for dinner?” Then, she seemed to notice that Jemma was still on her laptop, a grin curving her lips. “Oh wow, you still talking to the Speedy Gonzales of relationships?”

With a sigh, Jemma sat back up and turned her laptop around toward Daisy, introducing, “Daisy, this is Fitz; Fitz, this is my roommate, Daisy Johnson.”

Daisy waved, her grin widening as she stepped further into the room, greeting, “Hey Fitzy, what’s up? I mean, other than you.”

Jemma let out another pained groan at the joke, but neither acknowledged it as Fitz replied, “ _Hello Daisy. So, you’re the one that I have to thank for convincing Jemma to visit me?_ ”

“Yep,” Daisy answered, “though I didn’t tell her to _marry_ you, just so you know. If I’d known that sending her to you meant that I’d be without a roommate by the end of the year, I would’ve given it _a lot_ more thought first.”

“I’ll help you find a new roommate,” Jemma promised Daisy quickly, feeling a rush of guilt about leaving her. She and Fitz hadn’t had _much_ time to talk about what they were going to do after they got married, but they _had_ agreed that Fitz would come to live with her. It made the most sense, since her job and friends were all there – he’d moved around a lot, and other than being at the space center, he hadn’t been in one place long enough to put down roots anywhere, so he’d figured that they could put down some there together, in their own place. In fact, Jemma had already been looking into affordable flats and beginner houses in the area, always one to prepare far in advance.

“ _I’m sorry_ ,” Fitz apologized to Daisy, though after a moment he amended, “ _but, well…not too much, because I’m marrying the love of my life_.”

“Oh _Fitz_ ,” Jemma murmured, turning the laptop back to her so that he could see the loving smile on her face. “I miss you so much already.’

“ _I miss you too_.”

“ _Aww_ ,” Daisy cooed, drawing Jemma’s attention back to her briefly. “I’m ordering Chinese,” she informed her before leaving the room, shutting the door behind her.

Reluctantly, Jemma admitted to Fitz, “We should probably hang up soon, shouldn’t we?”

Fitz sighed, but ultimately nodded. “ _Yeah, probably. I’ll try to call you tomorrow if things aren’t too busy around here, but if not, it will definitely be the day after, alright?_ ”

She nodded in understanding, blinking back sudden tears, and she couldn’t help but think that if this was how much it hurt to say goodbye to him every single time, the next six months were going to be absolute _hell_. Reaching out to touch the edge of her screen lightly, Jemma wished that she was touching him instead, and she confessed quietly, “I can’t wait until I have you here beside me. I can’t wait to hold you, touch you, kiss you…”

He gave another sad sigh, and she could see him mirroring her, reaching out to touch his own screen. “ _I can’t wait to fall asleep beside you, to wake up to your beautiful face every morning. And, well…other things that we can do in a bed_.”

Jemma let out a watery laugh, agreeing, “It would certainly be different on a mattress instead of the ground, or without having to worry about ending up with grass in my hair, wouldn’t it? Not that I wouldn’t be up for another romp under the stars, of course.”

Fitz grinned at that, murmuring, “ _Me too_.” He was quiet a moment, then went on, “ _I love you, Jemma_.”

“I love you too, Fitz,” Jemma told him, and had never felt the strength of it more than she did in that moment, her heart positively aching for him. Though she wanted nothing more than to keep talking to him, to spend every moment of every day until he returned gazing into his eyes, she lifted her hand in a tiny little wave goodbye that he mimicked, knowing that that just wasn’t plausible.

Then, the connection cut off and his face disappeared, and she allowed her hand to fall back to her side as she let out a soft sigh.

For a handful of minutes, Jemma simply sat there, collecting herself and her scattered emotions, but eventually she pushed her laptop aside and closed it, climbing off of her bed. Before leaving her bedroom, she changed into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, tying her hair up in a ponytail.

When she stepped out into the hallway, she noticed Daisy just shutting their front door, a plastic bag now in hand. They both moved into the living room, and as Daisy began unloading the cartons of food onto their coffee table, she asked, “How’s Mr. Astronaut?”

Jemma curled up on one end of the couch, accepting the carton of sesame chicken that Daisy handed her as she replied, “Good. Though, he’s still in space so, things could be better.”

Daisy snorted in amusement, sitting down on the other side of the couch with a carton of chow mein. “Yeah, I’ve heard of long distance relationships, but this definitely takes the cake.”

Grabbing a pair of chopsticks off of the coffee table, Jemma opened the carton in her hand to begin digging in, but as the smell from inside was released and wafted up to her, thick and heavy, she felt her stomach turn abruptly.

Blinking in confusion, she automatically lowered the carton to her lap and further away from her nose, but it did little to settle her stomach. She just didn’t understand – she’d never had a problem with this before; she _loved_ sesame chicken!

Around a mouthful of noodles, Daisy questioned concernedly, “Jem? You okay?”

But, Jemma couldn’t answer, hastily setting the carton back on the coffee table and stumbling to her feet. Clapping a hand over her mouth, she dashed off toward the bathroom, barely reaching the toilet in time to fill their flat with the sounds of her emptying the contents of her stomach into it.

A few brief moments later, the sudden bout of nausea seemed to be finished, and she sat back shakily on her heels; though she was still gripping the sides of the toilet, just in case.

“Whoa.” Turning to her left, Jemma caught sight of Daisy in the doorway, still holding her chow mein. However, she then set it on the nearby counter, making a face as she explained, “Well, I just lost _my_ appetite.”

She stepped closer to Jemma then, grimacing and looking away as she gave the toilet lids a little push so that they dropped loudly back into place. Then, once she was sure that she wouldn’t be witness to anything unpleasant, she rested a comforting hand on Jemma’s shoulder.

“Are you sick?” she asked, moving her hand almost immediately from Jemma’s shoulder to instead press the back of it against her forehead. “Could you have caught something when you went to visit Fitz? I mean, you were around a lot of people there; who knows what kind of germs were floating around?”

Jemma shook her head slowly, carefully, doing everything that she possibly could to make sure that she didn’t nauseate herself again. “I’ve been back for nearly two weeks; if I’d caught something, I wouldn’t just be showing symptoms now.”

However, at that exact moment, the pairing of ‘two weeks’ and ‘symptoms’ had something clicking in her brain, and her back straightened abruptly as her eyes grew wide, and Jemma could only think one thing –

 _Shit_.


	2. Chapter 2

“Oh no. No. No, I…” Muttering to herself, Jemma hastily counted back in her head, coming rather quickly to the conclusion that her concern was likely _very_ necessary. “Oh _no_.”

“ _Jemma_! Jemma Simmons! You’re really starting to freak me out! What the _hell_ is going on?” Daisy demanded, finally breaking through the sudden fog of shock that had filled Jemma’s thoughts and causing her to glance up at her friend sharply. “Are you okay?”

“I…” Jemma shook her head, unable to believe the truth herself, let alone speak the words aloud. But, then she let out a shaking breath, and forced out the words that didn’t seem to want to pass her lips, “Daisy, I…I think that I…may be pregnant.”

For a moment, Daisy stared down at her blankly. Then, her eyes grew wide and she sputtered out, “ _What_? Are you – Jem, what the… This is _crazy_. You know that, right?”

“Well, it’s not like I planned on this! In fact, I didn’t plan on _any_ of this,” Jemma reminded her defensively. “And, I only said that I _may_ be pregnant; I…haven’t missed my period yet, I’m due to get it any day now, but…”

Daisy breathed a clear sigh of relief at that, giving her shoulder a supportive squeeze. “Well alright, that’s good! Let’s hold off on the freaking out until you know for sure that you’re late; one little lost lunch doesn’t really mean anything.” Holding out her hand to help Jemma up from the bathroom floor, she added optimistically, “Besides, you said that you guys only got down and dirty once – and I mean _literally_ dirty.”

Rolling her eyes at Daisy, Jemma grasped her offered hand, allowing her to help her back up to her feet. “Yes, well, you know what they say: ‘it only takes one time’.”

Daisy had already been on her way back out of the bathroom, carton of chow mein back in hand, but she paused, glancing back over her shoulder at Jemma and insisting firmly, “Don’t worry too much yet, okay? Just give it a bit of time; you may be worrying about nothing.”

Jemma wasn’t so sure about that, but she nodded regardless, hoping that Daisy was right. “Yes, I know,” she agreed, offering her a small, grateful smile.

But, despite that, it was all that she could seem to think about from that moment on, and later that night, it even made it difficult for her to try and find sleep. After a handful of hours spent tossing and turning without a wink of sleep, Jemma finally gave up around one a.m., climbing out of bed and flicking on the light. Crossing her room to open her closet doors, she then kneeled in front of her closet and began to rifle through the handful of boxes sitting on the floor that she’d never gotten around to unpacking.

After a bit of searching, she found what she was looking for and took it out, blowing some dust off of the cover before laying it on her lap. Carefully opening it, Jemma was immediately met with a picture of her and Fitz on their first day of second grade, their arms around each other’s shoulders and both wearing matching grins. It had a smile curving her lips, and she brushed her fingertips reverently over the picture, unable to believe that they were ever so young and naïve, that they could’ve gone from _there_ , to where they were now.

She flipped through the thick pages of the photo album, watching as they grew up before her eyes, until they were sixteen and attending their junior prom. They’d always planned on attending it together, so even though several boys had asked her, Jemma had turned each of them down in favor of going with her friend instead, thinking that it would no doubt be more fun with Fitz.

In the picture, they were standing close together at the bottom of the staircase in her parents’ old house, and she was grinning, hair styled in loose curls and makeup applied perfectly, and she could still remember how beautiful she’d felt the entire night in her flowing dark blue prom dress.

But, for the first time, Jemma noticed the nervousness hanging in Fitz’s expression, the way that his smile seemed just a little forced, not quite reaching his eyes. He was fiddling with his matching dark blue tie, and appeared to even be leaning away from her slightly.

Jemma wondered, abruptly, what it must’ve been like for him, all those years, knowing that he felt more for her than just friendship while she went along blissfully unaware of what they truly meant to each other. Then, of course, she couldn’t help but wonder what it would’ve been like if she _hadn’t_ been blissfully unaware, if Fitz had told her back then, or if she’d somehow realized it herself.

What would have been different, if they’d gotten together as teenagers? Would they still have been together now? Would they be married, with a couple of kids and a house with a white picket fence? Would they be _happy_?

Not that they weren’t happy now, of course! The phrase ‘better late than never’ had never fit anything quite as well as it fit their relationship, as far as Jemma was concerned. But still, she couldn’t help but wonder…

However, she then quickly shook the thoughts away, figuring that it did her no favors to dwell on the past – not when she should be thinking about the future. Instead, she flipped back to the beginning of the album once more, spending another few minutes gazing at their young, smiling faces.

Then, she blinked, and in that second, she found herself instead picturing their children standing side-by-side for a picture on their first day of a new school year, too-large backpacks hanging off of their backs and wide smiles displaying missing teeth here and there, all curly hair and bright blue eyes. But, then she blinked again, and the image disappeared, leaving Jemma breathless and more confused about all of this than she had been before.

She’d never really given much thought to the future, to kids and whether or not she wanted them, wanted to be a mother. She’d always figured that that would come later, once she’d settled into a long-term, committed relationship, possibly after getting married, if that was what felt right. After getting everything else in their lives settled, _then_ she and her partner would talk about kids, and if they both agreed that it was something that they wanted, if it was something that they were ready for, they would start trying to have them.

It had always been _planned_ in her vague thoughts of the future, and subsequently, Jemma had no idea what to do about this possible pregnancy that she’d _never_ planned for. Hell, three weeks ago, she’d been a single woman living in a flat with her friend, with no definite plans for the future – other than potential projects for the lab, that was.

Everything was changing so quickly, and even though loving Fitz, marrying Fitz, felt so _right_ , Jemma’s head felt like it was spinning with all of this rapid change. She knew that she shouldn’t worry about possibly being pregnant until she’d missed her period, like Daisy had told her, but she couldn’t _help_ it; she had to try and come up with plans for every possible direction that this might go, she had to be prepared.

She _had_ to try and take back some control over her life, or she might just go insane.

It was then that Jemma wished fervently that she could talk to Fitz, could call him or even text him, so that he could soothe her and remind her to slow down and take a deep breath before trying to puzzle this out. He’d always been so _good_ at it when they were kids (just as she was incredibly good at calming _him_ down), and she could certainly use some of that just then.

Though, Jemma thought with a wry smile, maybe he wouldn’t be so good at calming her down about this, not when he’d probably be freaking out just as much, if not _more_ than her at the moment.

Getting up off the floor with a sigh, she shut the closet doors and took the photo album back to her bed with her, placing it on her nightstand before climbing back under the covers. Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine that Fitz was there with her, imagined the solid heat of his body against her back, the soft brush of his breath against the back of her neck and her shoulder, the way that his arm would wrap comfortingly around her, keeping her close and safe, the way that his palm would press protectively against her stomach…

-

Jemma awoke with a start what felt like seconds later, automatically fumbling through the blankets for Fitz. Her brow furrowed when she found only cold, empty sheets, and she mumbled sleepily, “Fitz?” rolling over to find weak sunlight filtering in through the blinds.

As she blinked a couple of times to try and clear the sleepy haze hanging around her brain, she remembered abruptly that Fitz wasn’t there – he never had been. He was thousands of miles away, in a space station orbiting the planet, and it’d be months before they were together again.

And, as that reminder was sinking in, she also remembered the events of the previous night and her possible condition.

Letting out a soft, pathetic groan, Jemma threw her arm over her eyes, wishing that she could just go back to sleep and only wake up once Fitz was back and things were settled into some sort of normality. But, then a sudden knock on her door sounded through the room, followed by it opening and Daisy clearly poking her head in.

“Wakey wakey, Jemma! How’s the flow watch?” she greeted, followed almost immediately by the sound of her muffling a yawn with her hand.

With a tired sigh, Jemma pushed herself up into a sitting position, then turned to climb out of bed, replying, “I’ll let you know in about five minutes.”

Daisy stepped back to allow her to brush past her on her way to their bathroom down the hall, holding up her hand to show her crossed fingers as she offered a supportive smile, calling, “Good luck!” However, when Jemma came back out a handful of minutes later, she took one look at her expression and the smile slipped off of her face. “Nothing?” she asked, arching her brows worriedly.

“Just a tiny bit of spotting,” Jemma replied with a sigh, shaking her head when Daisy looked hopeful, “which can be from either a menstrual period or from implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus.”

“Oh.” Daisy frowned, but then she reminded Jemma lightly, “There’s always tomorrow.”

“Yes, tomorrow,” Jemma agreed absently, giving Daisy a tiny smile as she slipped by her once more to return to her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. She had to get ready to head to work soon, but she wanted to leave a bit earlier than she usually did, so that she could make a quick stop at the pharmacy on her way. Even if it was a little preemptive, and she _could_ be proven wrong tomorrow morning, she wanted to make that she was prepared, just in case.

After all, if there was one thing that she excelled at, it was preparation.

-

And, that was how Jemma found herself standing in the family planning section of the local pharmacy a short time later, gaze flicking back and forth to take in all of the differing brands of pregnancy tests. There were ones that boasted the quickest results, the most accurate results, the soonest results… It was all startling overwhelming.

Resolving to just dive in, though, Jemma grabbed one of the boxes, flipping it over to read the information on the back of it.

“I’ve always had the best experience with First Response.”

At first, Jemma tuned the voice out, not even registering that whoever had spoken was talking to _her_. But, when she went to put the test back, she noticed a woman with a kind smile just to her right that was very obviously waiting for a response.

Flushing slightly, Jemma offered her a weak smile in return and murmured, “Oh, thank you.” Taking one of the First Response tests off of the shelf, she gave it a cursory onceover.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the woman grabbing one as well, placing it in the shopping basket hooked on her forearm. “Is this your first?”

Blinking in surprise, Jemma glanced up from the test to meet the other woman’s curious gaze. “Um…yes, it is.” She wasn’t sure whether the woman meant her first child, or her first pregnancy test, but either way, the answer was the same.

She nodded, as though it was the answer that she’d suspected. “You did have that look about you. No offense, of course, we’re all nervous the first time. My husband and I already have two kids in school; our youngest, Penny, just started preschool last fall.”

“Ah.” Jemma wasn’t really sure what else to say, far from in the mood to be conversing with a stranger while sandwiched between shelves of pregnancy tests and condoms. “Well…good luck, then.” She gave the woman another little smile before turning back to the tests, giving the one in her hand another onceover. Figuring that it was good enough, she reached out to take another couple boxes off of the shelf, knowing well enough to take more than one, in case of a false positive or negative.

“Good luck to you as well,” the woman replied brightly, giving Jemma a little wave and a grin, then leaving the aisle, and leaving Jemma with a handful of pregnancy tests and suddenly introspective.

She was quite sure that the woman had meant ‘good luck’ as in she was hoping on Jemma’s behalf that she was pregnant, and she didn’t know how to feel about that, truthfully. In fact, she wasn’t even sure what _she_ was hoping the result would be.

There was good reason to believe that she was pregnant, that she was carrying the baby of her childhood best friend, no matter how much Daisy tried to insist that she was getting ahead of herself. Very likely, she _was_ pregnant, and the thought was enough to have her breath catching in her throat, her chest tightening and her hands shaking.

Could she picture herself being like the woman she’d just spoken to, happily raising a handful of kids with her husband? Could she picture herself as a successful mother when she only had nine months to prepare for it?

Of course, Fitz would be an amazing father; she had no doubts about that. He was loving and understanding, forgiving and funny, and she’d always insisted that he gave the absolute best hugs. And, suddenly, the thought of _giving_ him that, of bringing their child into the world and seeing Fitz rocking them to sleep and playing with them in the backyard and helping them with their homework…it had her heart expanding in her chest, until she felt tears stinging at the backs of her eyes.

Blinking rapidly and dropping her gaze once more to the tests in her hands, Jemma felt just a bit better about the possible pregnancy, felt more prepared for the eventuality that she _was_ pregnant. Sure, it wouldn’t be perfect, nothing in life was, but it’d be with _Fitz_ – if she’d learned anything from their friendship, it was that they could do just about anything when they worked together, when they were a team.

Either way, though, she’d know by tomorrow morning, and finally, she was ready for it.

-

The next afternoon, Jemma was once more sitting on her bed with her laptop resting on her thighs, though she was nervous about speaking with Fitz for a whole new reason than she had been two days prior. As the call connected on the screen in front of her, she took a handful of deep breaths, resolving to be as calm and rational about all of this as she possibly could be.

Finally, Fitz’s face appeared on the screen, and almost instantly, Jemma felt a brief wash of tranquility, simply at the sight of him. “ _Jemma_ ,” he breathed, smiling widely. “ _I’m so sorry that I couldn’t call yesterday. I thought that I might have the time, but then things picked up quickly and by the time that I could stop to take a breath, it was too late to call you._ ”

“That’s alright, Fitz,” Jemma assured him, trying to keep her voice even, but despite that, her tone was notably subdued.

From his frown, she could tell that he’d picked up on it instantly. “ _What’s wrong, Jem?_ ”

She didn’t answer right away, instead dropping her gaze to her lap, where she was flipping a little stick of plastic over and over in her hands. But, then she sighed and lifted it up wordlessly so that the little window of the pregnancy test that she’d taken that morning was visible to the camera.

Fitz squinted at it, looking incredibly confused as he leaned in closer to the screen, but she knew the exact second that he understood; his eyes grew wide and he started choking (on air and his own shock, no doubt). “ _Are you – are you – you –_ ”

Rolling her eyes slightly, Jemma finished for him, “Pregnant? Yes, apparently.”

He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, looking absurdly like a fish, then he blinked and asked in a voice barely above a whisper, “ _Is it…?_ ”

“ _Fitz_!” Jemma snapped in disbelief, narrowing her eyes and folding her arms angrily over her chest, positive pregnancy test still in hand.

He shrugged widely, reminding her, “ _We just got together two weeks ago, Jemma! I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be…a jerk or something, but_ –”

“It’s yours,” she interrupted his attempt to dig himself out the hole he’d dug to answer his initial question. “Not that it’s at the top of my list for conversation topics, but…the time between you and…well, it doesn’t overlap by any means.”

Fitz blew out a breath, seeming both relieved and still terribly shocked as he dropped back in his chair, shaking his head absently. “ _We only slept together_ once _…_ ” he mumbled to himself.

“Well, we didn’t exactly use protection,” Jemma was quick to point out, “and the pull-out method is far from effective in preventing pregnancy. It’s like I told Daisy; it does only take one time.”

A bit defensively, he reminded her, “ _I wasn’t carrying condoms on me because I wasn’t exactly_ planning _on having sex with the girl that I’ve been in love with for most of my life, thank you very much –_ _I was planning on going to space, where I was very sure that I wouldn’t need them_.” Letting out a heavy breath, Fitz reached up to drag a hand through his hair, admitting hoarsely, “ _I just can’t believe…are you sure?_ ”

“This isn’t the only test that I took,” she informed him, absently waving the plastic test in her hand.

He nodded, absorbing that information for a moment. “ _Jemma…I…”_

“Do…you not want children?” Jemma asked, chewing on her bottom lip anxiously as the thought occurred to her. She certainly wouldn’t blame Fitz for it; she knew that the childhood trauma that stemmed from his relationship with his father would be enough to give anyone reason to second guess it.

“ _No! No, that’s not – god, of course I wanna have kids with you_ ,” Fitz hastily assured her, and the words had her stomach twisting pleasantly, a little smile playing on her lips. “ _It’s just…I wasn’t expecting it_ this soon _, y’know? But, that doesn’t mean I’m not okay with it! I just need some time to…to adjust. Everything’s just happening so fast._ ”

“I know what you mean,” Jemma told him wryly – _she_ wasn’t even used to the idea yet, and she was the pregnant one.

“ _And…and I’m not even gonna be there for most of it_ ,” Fitz said slowly, his expression collapsing as it occurred to him. “ _I’m gonna miss everything_.” Groaning lowly, he dragged a hand over his face, his words muffled slightly as he muttered, “ _We really do have the worst timing, don’t we?_ ”

“Well, this wouldn’t have happened if you’d just told me ten years ago that you were in love with me,” she pointed out a bit teasingly, her heart going out to him. She, of course, wished more than anything that he was there with her and would be there by her side throughout it all, but the last thing that she wanted was to say as much and make things worse for him.

Fitz snorted in disbelief, arching an eyebrow at her. “ _Yeah, if I’d told you ten years ago,_ none _of this would’ve happened – I wouldn’t have even had the chance to accidentally get you pregnant_.”

“What is _that_ supposed to mean?” Jemma asked, once more folding her arms over her chest.

“ _Um, that you wouldn’t have wanted to be with me back then?_ ” He likely meant for it to be a statement, but it came out more like a question, no doubt in response to her scowl.

“And what makes you think that I didn’t feel this way then?” She couldn’t help but feel a bit offended; it wasn’t as though they’d changed _that_ much over the years, and Fitz was selling himself awfully short. “I may not have been _conscious_ of it, but I loved you just as much when we were kids as I do now, Fitz, I just couldn’t see it for what it _was_.”

Fitz still looked unsure, asking hesitantly, “ _Yeah?_ ”

“Yeah,” she replied firmly, finally setting down the pregnancy test in order to reach over to her nightstand, picking up the photo album that she’d placed there the other night. Flipping to one of the last pages, which featured a picture of them on the day of their high school graduation, wearing their caps and gowns and sharing an elated hug, beaming at each other with their eyes shining with joy, Jemma then turned the album around to display the picture for the camera. Tapping her own face in the photo, she asked pointedly, “Do you see that smile? _God_ , Fitz, I was so in love with you; I just had no idea.”

He was quiet for a lengthy moment, then he released a long breath. “ _You’re distracting me, aren’t you?_ ”

Startled, Jemma glanced up from the photo album in her lap and met Fitz’s knowing gaze. “What?”

A little smile quirked up one corner of his mouth as he insisted, “ _You’re trying to distract me from being upset that I can’t be there for you and the baby_ …” He trailed off then, sitting up straight as his eyes grew wide and filled with something like… _reverence_. Under his breath, he repeated in awe, “ _Baby. A_ baby _._ _We’re gonna have a_ baby _._ ”

A breathless smile curved Jemma’s lips, and she set the album aside so that she could press her palm against her stomach, murmuring in reply, “Yes, we are. And…and no matter if you’re here for every ultrasound or the first kick or any of that, you’ll still be an amazing father to our child, Fitz. And just think; now, they get to say that their daddy is an astronaut, and will be just as proud of you as I am.”

Fitz simply gazed at her for a moment, the awe still clear in his eyes, so strong that it had her heart skipping a beat in her chest. Then, a little smile ticked the corners of his lips up, and he whispered, “ _I love you, Jemma_.”

And, never having been more sure of anything in her life, and now firm in the belief that they could get through this, Jemma replied gently, tenderly, “I love you too, Fitz.”


	3. Chapter 3

 

A few days later, Jemma and Daisy had been in the process of walking up the driveway to their friend Bobbi’s flat, but Daisy had just come to an abrupt halt halfway there, in response to Jemma’s impromptu declaration of, “I’m pregnant.”

Though Jemma had known about it for a handful of days by then, she’d wanted to wait to tell everyone (besides Fitz, of course) until after she’d gone to see her OB to confirm it. Which, was exactly what she’d done earlier that day, and she’d figured that she owed the truth to Daisy – after all, she’d started and ended each day lately by asking if Jemma had gotten her period.

“Are you serious?” Daisy asked in shock, her eyes growing wide and her hands dropping to her sides, the bag of potato chips in her right looking dangerously close to falling to the ground. “You’re _really_ …”

Jemma nodded in response, offering Daisy a weak smile. “I know this a lot to take in –”

“Um _yeah_ , it is!” Daisy interrupted, her eyebrows darting up her forehead. However, then she blinked, taking a half-step closer and asking gently, “Have you decided what you’re going to do? How long have you… Does Fitz know?”

“Yes, he does; I found out on Saturday,” Jemma answered, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “And well, we talked about it, and…we decided to have this baby. I mean, we would’ve wanted kids eventually – this just moves the timetable up a bit.”

“Or _a lot_.” Daisy was quiet a moment, then she gave her a warm smile and told her, “Even though I’m still…wrapping my head around Jemma ‘work comes before everything, including boys’ Simmons settling down and having a _kid_ , and I won’t believe it till I see it, I’m happy for you. Congratulations, Jem, seriously. Oh, and of course I’ll help in any way I can – _even_ after Fitz gets his ass back from space.”

Jemma couldn’t help the little sigh of relief that she gave at Daisy’s words. Of course she’d _known_ that Daisy would be there for her, but the confirmation that she’d have someone by her side through this was relieving in a way that she hadn’t predicted. “Thank you, Daisy. Truly.” She reached out to catch her free hand, giving it a grateful squeeze.

Daisy grinned in response, teasing, “I hope this officially puts me in the running for godmother, then.”

Laughing in surprise, Jemma dropped Daisy’s hand to lightly elbow her in the ribs, instead pointing out, “We should get inside – they’re probably waiting on us.”

As she then continued up the driveway, Daisy called while she hurried to catch up with her, “Will you at least think about it?”

In response, Jemma simply rolled her eyes fondly, a little smile ticking her lips up at the corners. She climbed up the porch steps, knocking once on the front door before opening it and stepping into the flat, calling, “We’re finally here, sorry!”

Bobbi, Jemma’s university roommate and longtime friend, appeared after a moment, carrying a tray of chips and salsa from the kitchen to the living room, her eyebrows raised as she teased, “Jemma Simmons, _late_? I never thought that I’d see it with my own two eyes.”

“Oh, be quiet,” Jemma shot back lightly.

Behind her, she heard Daisy mutter, “It’s more likely than you think,” as she shut the door.

Narrowing her eyes, Jemma reached back to smack Daisy’s arm for the comment, glancing over her shoulder when Bobbi wasn’t looking to show her that she wasn’t amused, but Daisy just shrugged unrepentantly in response.

They both followed Bobbi into the living room then, where Elena was already sprawled on the couch, sipping a beer. Initially, Jemma and Daisy had gotten to know Elena because she went to the same gym that they did, just down the street from their flat. But, when Daisy had set her and their friend Mack up on a blind date and they’d had an instant connection, she’d cemented herself as a part of their group of friends, and now they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Hey, finally,” Elena greeted them, smirking as she lifted her beer bottle in a little salute.

In retaliation for the comment, Daisy playfully shoved Elena over until she’d moved enough to make room for both her and Jemma on the couch, Bobbi dropping down into the arm chair across from them.

This was the first girls’ night that they’d had in some time, everyone’s busy schedules finally synching up to allow them to carve out some time for it, so they spent a bit just catching up, talking about work and relationships. Elena informed them about how things had been with Mack lately (they’d just started talking about moving in together), and Bobbi confessed (much to their displeasure) that she and her ex (who was also a friend of theirs), Hunter, were back together again – for the fifth time.

“This is the time it’s going to stick!” Bobbi insisted over the sound of their playful booing. “Or, well, I might just kill him – but, either way, this time will be different.”

From the silence of the others, Jemma had to assume that neither Daisy or Elena believed it anymore than she did, but by silent agreement they kept their opinions to themselves; Bobbi was allowed to make her own decisions, even if they were bad ones, and they’d support them – and, of course, be there when it all inevitably crashed and burned.

“Hey,” Elena said suddenly, leaning around Daisy to speak to Jemma, “how was your trip to see that old friend of yours?”

Startled, Jemma asked her, “How did you know about that?”

“Oh, I may have mentioned it to her while you were gone,” Daisy admitted, shrugging apologetically, but Jemma quickly waved it off to show that she wasn’t upset with her.

“Old friend?” Bobbi repeated, arching her eyebrow curiously. “Is this the mysterious ‘Fitz’ that you’ve been talking about ever since college, but that in ten years I’ve never met?”

“Yes, it is,” Jemma replied simply. She played with her hands in her lap briefly, laughing awkwardly as she lifted her left hand and wordlessly displayed her engagement ring.

Bobbi literally spit out her mouthful of beer, and Elena’s eyes grew wide as she muttered under her breath, “Oh my _god_.”

“I know, _right_?” Daisy interjected, nodding rapidly in agreement with their shocked reactions.

“What _happened_?” Bobbi asked, shaking her head in complete disbelief as she absently dabbed at her lap, where a few droplets of beer had ended up landing. “You never said that you and Fitz were together!”

“We weren’t,” Jemma confessed.

Before she could elaborate on that, though, Bobbi held up a hand and said firmly, “Okay, we are _definitely_ going to need something stronger if we’re going to talk about this.” She stood and left the room briefly, coming back with a pitcher of margaritas and four glasses.

She poured each of them one, and though Jemma accepted hers, she then set it down on the coffee table in front of her and apologized, “I’m sorry, Bobbi, but I can’t…I shouldn’t be drinking.”

Bobbi stared down at her blankly for a moment, then asked sharply, “Jemma Anne Simmons, are you _pregnant_?”

In response, Jemma just smiled weakly and shrugged. It wasn’t how she’d planned on telling her friends about the baby (not by a _long shot_ ), but nothing that had happened since she’d taken her trip to see Fitz had gone the way that she’d planned, so she figured that she should try just going along with it.

There was a beat of tense, heavy silence, then Bobbi plopped back down in her seat, took a drink of her margarita, and told her, “Alright, I’m ready now; tell us _everything_.”

-

A handful of nights later found Jemma perched on her bed, surrounded by every single book that she could find on pregnancy and babies at the local bookstore. She was waiting on a call from Fitz, but had figured that she could use this bit of free time to get started on reading through them. Already, she had several marked pages, and had a growing list of things to look further into, as well as another list of everything that she was going to have to do before the baby came – in her opinion, it was never too early to start preparing.

She was in the middle of a chapter on labor when her laptop screen lit up with an incoming call from Fitz, so she flipped the book over, making sure to keep it open to right page, before tugging her laptop closer and answering it.

“ _Hey_ ,” he greeted warmly the moment that the call connected, and simply from the expression on his face, Jemma knew that he was just as happy to see her as she was to see him; they hadn’t had a chance to talk for several days by then, what with both of their work schedules making it difficult to find time for it.

“Hi Fitz,” she replied softly, her lips automatically curving into a smile.

“ _You look tired_ ,” he commented, his brow furrowing a bit in concern.

Jemma shrugged one shoulder, agreeing easily, “I’m sure I do; I’m exhausted more often than not these days. Which is normal for the first trimester of pregnancy, of course. Oh!” Turning away briefly, she reached over to grab something off of her bedside table, explaining to Fitz, “I went to see my doctor earlier this week, and I had my first ultrasound to confirm my due date.” With that, she held the little square photograph up to the camera so that he could see, pointing to the little white blob toward the middle of it. “That’s the baby right there.”

Fitz leaned in closer to his screen, awe filling his expression as he gazed at it, whispering, “ _Wow, that’s…that’s…_ ” He didn’t seem to have the words to finish that sentence, and ended up just slowly shaking his head instead.

Jemma understood, though. “I know,” she murmured, her own voice slightly breathless with her own lingering awe over the reminder that their child was growing inside of her at that moment.

He blinked and gave a short shake of his head, as if forcing himself to focus on her rather than the picture, asking curiously, “ _When’s your due date, then?_ ”

“February 5th,” she answered, lowering the ultrasound photo from the camera and carefully placing it on the bed beside her.

“ _Good, that’s good – I’ll be back by then, if all goes to plan up here_ ,” Fitz replied, letting out a sigh of relief.

“Good,” Jemma agreed with a nod, unable to imagine _not_ having Fitz there with her when she gave birth.

He was quiet a moment, then told her, “ _Hey, I finally had a chat with my mum yesterday, and I told her everything_.”

“ _Everything_?” she repeated in surprise, her eyebrows arching on her forehead.

Fitz’s brow furrowed in confusion as he answered, “ _Yeah, everything. Why?_ ”

“I haven’t even worked up to telling _my_ parents about the pregnancy yet,” Jemma confessed, “and they already knew about our impromptu engagement. How…did she take it, then?”

He gave a little shrug as he responded, “ _Well, she was surprised, of course. Told me that she couldn’t believe that I would propose to a girl that I hadn’t seen in ten years and then up and leave for_ space _– all while leaving that poor girl pregnant and alone. You know, she gave me the old ‘I raised you better than that’ spiel_.” Rubbing at the back of his neck and chuckling a bit, he added, “ _I definitely came off looking a lot worse in her eyes, but I’m not surprised – when you put it like that, after all, it doesn’t sound all that great._ ”

Despite his words, Jemma couldn’t help but still feel a bit anxious, so she pressed, “But, she was okay that it was…me? She was okay with everything?”

Fitz gave her a look, as though she was being utterly ridiculous or something. “Of course _she was; Jemma, I told you, she’s loved you like a daughter since we were kids. Truthfully, she’s thrilled that you’re officially becoming a part of the family, and was even on me about not asking you to marry me_ sooner _. Y’know, since it was ‘so obvious’ that we were meant to be together – her words, not mine_.”

Jemma felt a rush of relief at the confirmation; she absolutely loved Fitz’s mother, who had been like a second mother to her when they were growing up, and she couldn’t even _imagine_ upsetting her with something like this, especially to the point where she didn’t approve of or like Jemma anymore.

She supposed, though, that those fears _were_ a bit preposterous to begin with, especially when she knew how much Mrs. Fitz loved her, but she hadn’t been able to help but worry (perhaps, she thought to herself, it was the fact that her hormones were all out-of-whack that had caused her overreaction).

To Fitz, she said simply, “Good, I’m glad.” Then, just to make completely sure, she asked, “And, she’s…alright with the baby?”

Giving her a bit of a look, Fitz reminded her, “ _We’re not teenagers, Jemma, we’re adults – I don’t need my mum’s approval to have a kid_.” But, when she just arched an eyebrow at him, he sighed and assured her, “ _Yeah, of course she’s okay with that too. In fact, I believe the words ‘my first grandbaby’ were used at one point in the conversation. You’ll no doubt be receiving a bunch of phone calls with tips on child-rearing from her, and knitted baby blankets and hats in the post every other week or so._ ”

The obvious affection behind the gestures that were just so patently Mrs. Fitz had Jemma smiling, even though she knew that Fitz was teasing – she’d always loved how warm and nurturing his mother was. Not that her own mother wasn’t, of course, there was just a marked different between them, one that Jemma had never been able to quite put her finger on. And, well, there had always been something about the Fitz family home that had been so welcoming to her growing up.

“Well, I’ll look forward to them.”

“ _You say that now_ …” Fitz muttered, but Jemma chose to ignore it.

Instead, she changed the subject, telling him, “You’ll never guess how some of my friends found out that I was pregnant.”

Animatedly, she began telling him the story of girls’ night (which had, inevitably, reached both Hunter and Mack by the end of the night, and she’d woken up to a concerned phone call from the latter and a text saying simply ‘ _you got knocked up??_ ’ from the former the following morning). He was surprised at all the right moments, laughing along with her by the end, and Jemma’s heart was absolutely filled to the brim with love for him.

For what felt like the hundredth time in the past couple of weeks, she found herself wondering how she had ever gone so long without him (though, truthfully, she’d spent quite a bit of time _talking_ about him during that period, enough that it sometimes felt as though he really was there), but now she was secure in the knowledge that he wasn’t going anywhere – except space, obviously – and that they were going to spend the rest of their lives together, with their own little family. And, honestly, she had never been happier.

Sure, things were a bit of a jumbled mess right now as she tried to figure out what step to take next and how to properly fill the next nine months so that she was ready for the baby when it came, but just then, none of that was pressing.

Instead, Jemma focused on Fitz, who was gazing back at her with the same overwhelming amount of love in his eyes that she was sure was written on her own face; that was all that truly mattered in that moment.


	4. Chapter 4

“Hey, we almost weren’t sure that this was the right place!” Daisy called across the backyard of Mack and Elena’s newly rented home, a cute little cottage that Jemma found absolutely adorable.

The sound of Mack’s familiar chuckle reached them before he did, crossing the yard as he was to give each of them one of his famous bear hugs in greeting. “I know; I still can’t believe how quickly we found this place.” Lowering his voice and arching an eyebrow, he added, “Yo-Yo’s still convinced that there’s _something_ wrong with it that we just haven’t found yet.”

Smiling at Mack’s fond teasing of his girlfriend, Jemma told him, “Remind me to get your realtor’s name – I’m going to need to start looking for a new flat for Fitz and I sooner rather than later.”

“I’ll make sure you get it before you leave tonight,” he promised, leading them both back over to the grill that he’d been manning. “Hope you guys are hungry; we’ve got more than enough food to go around.”

“You’re telling me,” Daisy replied, arching an eyebrow as she eyed the stack of uncooked burgers and hot dogs on the tray beside the grill. “Jeez, you guys are really taking this Fourth of July barbeque to the extreme, aren’t you? It’s not even really the fourth!”

Pointing his spatula mock-threateningly at Daisy, Mack told her, “Hey, this is the birth of our _nation_ we’re talking about.”

“ _And_ , it’s a certain someone else’s birthday _tomorrow_ ,” Daisy hinted not-so-subtly.

Mack let out a loud laugh at that, wrapping his free arm around Daisy’s shoulders in a half-hug. “’Course it is! There may even be a present somewhere around here for you.”

“ _Oh_?”

As Daisy began to press for more details, Jemma, whose stomach was turning a bit worryingly at the smell of the meat grilling, took a step toward the back door of the house and told them, “I’m sorry, I can’t –”

But, before she could finish, Daisy cut her off to say, “Oh shit, yeah, you okay? Do I need to find you the nearest bucket?”

“I think I should be fine if I just put some distance between myself and the burgers,” Jemma answered, offering Mack an apologetic smile.

Mack’s brow furrowed in concern, and he offered, “Yo-Yo and Bobbi are inside if you want to head in.”

Already backing up, Jemma called, “Thank you,” before sliding open the glass back door and stepping inside. She could feel her stomach begin to settle once she’d closed it behind her, and she breathed a soft sigh of relief. She had about two weeks now left of her first trimester, and she was _so_ looking forward to the morning sickness easing – she’d had a rough time of it for the past month, and she’d be glad when it was all over.

Both Bobbi and Elena glanced up at her entrance into the little kitchen, where they were gathering drinks and opening containers of various picnic salads, no doubt to bring outside to join the rest of the food, and they both greeted her warmly.

“Need any help?” she offered, stepping closer, and ready to offer aid in any way that she could.

Elena waved away her offer, though, assuring her, “We’ve got this.”

Nodding in understanding, Jemma glanced around and told her, “This place is so wonderful, I’m happy for you both, truly.”

She smiled warmly in response. “Thank you, Jemma.” Then, out of the blue, she went on, “Daisy told me that she can’t go with you to see your doctor next week. I’m free, if you would like me to go instead.”

Startled, Jemma glanced away from a framed photo of Mack and Elena that she’d been studying on the counter and toward Elena herself, who was focused on stirring a bowl of pasta salad. Before she could even begin to form a reply, though, Bobbi put in, “Yeah, and I can take off work whenever you need me to, if you’ve got an appointment and want some company.”

Glancing between them with an arched eyebrow, Jemma smiled wryly and asked rhetorically, “Why does this feel like something you two cooked up with Daisy?”

The two exchanged a glance before Elena admitted with a guilty little shrug, “Daisy may have mentioned something about it to us.”

“But we were on board one hundred percent from the beginning,” Bobbi was quick to add. “We just don’t want you to go through this alone, hon.”

Though she appreciated the sentiment, Jemma made it a point to remind them, “I’m _not_ alone. But, thank you both. And I would love to have you come with me, Elena. Thank you.”

Elena smiled and nodded in response, but then Bobbi asked with a smirk twitching at the corners of her lips, “Jemma, what are you _doing_?”

It was only then that Jemma became conscious of the fact that she’d been tidying up the messy kitchen, putting dishes in the sink (pre-rinsing them, of course), folding napkins, and separating the pile of silverware into sets of forks, knives, and spoons.

Flushing in embarrassment, she quickly took a step back and held up her hands before hooking them around her neck. “Oh, I’m _sorry_. I’ve been doing this everywhere, even at _work_!” Grimacing a bit, she admitted, “It’s the reason that my co-workers came to the eventual conclusion that I was pregnant; I was even _more_ tidy than usual.” Shaking her head, she could still feel the heat burning across her cheeks. “Everyone, including Daisy…they’ve all been insisting that I’m nesting, but it’s far too early for that! But, either way, I’m sorry, I…”

Elena held up a hand to cut off her apology, chuckling as she shook her head, “Don’t apologize – you’re not doing _me_ any harm.”

Picking up the napkins and silverware that she’d sorted, Jemma followed the other two outside into the backyard then, explaining to them, “Daisy was happy about it in the beginning too, but now she’ll put something down on the coffee table for a minute, and it’s disappeared back into its rightful place by the time she’s returned to pick it up. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the phrase, ‘there’s such a thing as _too_ clean, Jemma’ lately.”

Bobbi let out an amused snort at that, placing her armload of drinks down on one side of the folding table set up off to the side of the yard. “Honestly, if you’re _that_ bad, I’m terrified of when the actual nesting starts.”

Jemma nodded in agreement, making a bit of a face as she set the pile of napkins and silverware down as well. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Hunter striding up to them and grabbing a plate from the end of the table, and she turned fully to face him when he greeted, “Oh, hey Simmons.”

“Hello Hunter,” she replied, offering him a smile. When he didn’t reply, and only squinted at her oddly, her smile fell and she asked a bit self-consciously, “What?”

Blinking a couple of times, he answered quickly, “Oh, no, you just…don’t really _look_ pregnant, yeah? Aren’t you supposed to be…” Trailing off, he held out his hands in front of him, mining cupping a large stomach instead to complete his train of thought.

Before Jemma could even begin to try and form a reply to that, she heard Bobbi give a low groan, grabbing Hunter’s arm in order to drag him away. Though, they weren’t quite of earshot when she snapped at him, “God, you are such an _idiot_ sometimes, Hunter.”

And, Hunter’s reply of, “ _What_?! I didn’t even bring up the fact that her baby daddy’s AWOL!”, was just as clear. Jemma might’ve been offended by the conversation as a whole – _if_ she hadn’t known that that was just Hunter being Hunter, which she was more than used to by now, so it all really just rolled right off her back.

A few of Mack and Elena’s other friends joined them not too long after, as well as Mack’s brother and some of Elena’s cousins, and the little backyard was filled with laughter and several different conversations, as well as music playing from a set of speakers on the back porch, up until the sky grew dark and the fireworks were due to start any minute.

Jemma was curled up in a lawn chair with Daisy in her own beside her, and as the first brightly colored firework filled the sky above, Daisy reached over to elbow her in the side, waiting until she had her attention before saying, “Hey, maybe next year you and Fitz could throw the Fourth of July barbeque – I’m sure everyone’s gonna want to see your new little baby all dressed up in red, white, and blue.”

Not even bothering to remind Daisy that both she and Fitz weren’t even _American_ , Jemma simply replied, “Yes, maybe,” instead caught up in how _nice_ it would be to have Fitz around all the time, with the option of throwing parties together or just having friends over to their flat for a little get-together. She was quite sure, after all, that he was going to get along just fine with friends once they all got to know each other.

As she turned her gaze skyward once more, Jemma couldn’t help but picture Fitz up there somewhere, among the stars, and though she missed him just as desperately as she always did these days, a little smile curved her lips then as she pressed one hand against her stomach.

This time next year, he’d be back by her side and they’d have a baby; _that_ was what was important.

-

A handful of days later found Jemma rushing haphazardly around her flat, trying to get ready in a hurry so as not to be late for her doctor’s appointment. She _had_ been on time, even having the time to make a couple of slices of toast for herself and Daisy before she went off to work, but then she’d run down to grab their mail and had gotten a whiff of the eggs that their neighbor was cooking on her way back up to their floor.

Unfortunately, it was one of the times that the nausea didn’t pass, and she’d wasted a good fifteen minutes bent over the toilet, _losing_ said toast, then waiting impatiently for her stomach to settle back down before she could get back to getting ready for the day.

Now, she was tugging a t-shirt on over her head, her jeans were still unbuttoned and riding low on her waist, and her hair was in the same messy ponytail that she’d thrown it in earlier that morning.

When a sudden knock on the door had her pausing, Jemma glanced at the time, and figuring that it could only be Elena, she hurried over to open it, already apologizing in advance, “I’m –”

But, the rest of the sentence never left her lips, because she then registered that it was _not_ Elena that was standing on the other side of her door, and but was in fact Nora Fitz instead.

Jemma stared a bit blankly at Fitz’s mother for a long moment, her mouth hanging open, but when Nora chuckled and greeted, “Hello, dear,” she snapped out of it and hastily yanked her t-shirt down the rest of the way and buttoned up her jeans.

“Mrs. Fitz! I – what a surprise! Fitz never said anything about you coming to visit!” Jemma replied, utterly flustered as she stepped back to allow her inside, accepting a brief embrace from the older woman with a small, surprised smile.

“He didn’t know,” Nora admitted, “but I apologize; perhaps I should’ve given you some sort of warning.” Narrowing her eyes sternly, she added, “And I’ve been telling you for years, Jemma Anne – it’s _Nora_. Or, Mum now, if you’d like.” She smiled warmly at that, even as she offered Jemma a little teasing wink, and it only served to prove that Fitz was absolutely right about her being okay with their relationship, which she couldn’t help but be relieved about.

“Nora, right, sorry,” Jemma corrected, offering her a weak smile in return.

Nora’s brow furrowed, and she asked in concern, “Am I interrupting anything? If so, I can stop back in later – it’s my own fault for not calling first.”

“Oh, no! No, you’re not interrupting,” she assured her hastily. Even if she had been, though, she certainly would’ve have turned her away – Fitz’s mother might’ve still lived in the States, but her home was still a bit of a drive from Jemma’s flat. “I was just getting ready to go to an OB appointment, and I’m running a bit behind.”

Nora arched an eyebrow at that, teasing, “Now, that doesn’t sound like the Jemma Simmons that I knew when she was just a girl.”

Laughing at that, Jemma told her, “Believe me, it still isn’t – but I can hardly help it when the neighbor’s making eggs and my stomach doesn’t quite agree with the smell of them.”

Humming in sympathy, Nora confessed, “Oh, I had the _worst_ morning sickness when I was pregnant with Leo.”

Pausing in tugging her shoes on, Jemma glanced up at her and said with a bit of fear coloring her tone, “Please tell me that it didn’t go past the first trimester – I’ve been so looking forward to this chapter of the pregnancy wrapping up as soon as possible.”

“Oh no, no dear, after the first few months, it was suddenly like it’d never happened,” Nora assured her with a wave of her hand. “Everything was roses from then on – well, in terms of nausea anyway. Did Leo ever tell you just how much he enjoyed kicking his poor mum at all hours of the night, playing football with my organs and jumping on my bladder like they were _toys_?”

With a laugh, Jemma shook her head, telling her, “No, he definitely left that bit out.”

“Yes, well, I’m not surprised.” Nora rolled her eyes fondly, giving a little shake of her head at her son’s antics.

Jemma grabbed her purse off of the back of the couch then, but paused as something occurred to her. “Would you like to come to my appointment with me? My friend Elena is taking me, but you’re more than welcome to join us.”

Nora lit up almost immediately at the prospect, but she still replied carefully, “Oh, well, if you’re sure; I wouldn’t want to intrude.”

“You wouldn’t be,” Jemma insisted, “you no doubt came all this way to see your grandchild, so you might as well.”

Even as she smiled elatedly, Nora corrected, “I came all this way to see my grandchild _and_ my future daughter-in-law.” Then, reaching out to give Jemma’s shoulder a gentle squeeze, she added softly, “Thank you, dear.”

-

After Jemma’s appointment, she and Elena had taken Nora out for lunch, and once they’d dropped Elena off and returned to the flat, the two of them spent some time catching up, talking about her plans for the baby, and, of course, Fitz. Jemma found out about how his mother was obviously proud of him for being an astronaut, but also was a bit bothered by the fact that his career choice had him in _space_ for months, and Jemma told her a bit more about their whirlwind romance and proposal than Fitz had in their brief conversation the previous month.

And, when Daisy got home from work, despite never having met Fitz or his mother before, she jumped right into the conversation, explaining that she had to know more about this guy if she was going to let him marry her best friend.

Nora had tried to insist that she should head home after dinner, but both Jemma and Daisy convinced her to stay, so that she wouldn’t have to drive in the dark, and so that she could spend a bit more time with Jemma the following day (and, little did Daisy know, Jemma had invited her to the surprise birthday party they were planning for Daisy tomorrow afternoon – or, well, maybe she did, since Jemma was a horrible liar, but she _hoped_ at least). Daisy even offered up her bed, insisting that it was better that she crash on the couch than the pregnant woman.

But, before they went to bed and while Daisy was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, Jemma pulled Nora aside, finally asking something that had been weighing on her mind all day, “You…you haven’t mentioned anything about the pregnancy to my parents, have you?”

Nora was clearly a bit taken aback by the question, but assured her regardless, “No, I haven’t. Do they not…”

“No, they don’t know yet,” she finished, grimacing a bit and crossing her arms over her chest.

Nodding in understanding, Nora admitted, “Well, it’s a good thing that I know; I’d actually been thinking about ringing your mum to talk about our mutual grandbaby sometime soon.”

Jemma, of course, wasn’t surprised that her mother and Fitz’s were still in contact – they’d gotten quite close when she and Fitz were friends growing up, and her mother had mentioned Nora every so often during their chats over the years. Though, she did also know that their friendship had fallen a bit by the wayside when Jemma and Fitz had stopped talking and her parents had later moved back to England, not talking as often as they used to.

“Well, I’ll let Mum know to give you a call when I _do_ tell them about the baby,” Jemma told her. She hesitated, then confessed a bit unsurely, “I just…haven’t worked up to it, and well, I’ve been so busy with work and appointments and…and morning sickness, which really means being sick at any time of the day and night, so –”

“I understand, dear,” Nora cut in to tell her gently, “take your time, no one’s rushing you. It’s a lot for anyone to tell their parents about – lord knows I was shocked when Leo told _me_ the news.”

Releasing a relieved breath, Jemma offered her a grateful smile, murmuring, “Thank you.” It made her feel worlds better to have her hesitancy about telling her parents validated, especially by someone that she trusted the opinion of as much as she did Nora Fitz.

It wasn’t that she was _afraid_ to tell them, or worried about their reactions, or anything of the sort. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what was holding her back from making the call and simply giving them the news, but she did know that she was going to have to do it soon; the longer she waited, the more she imagined that her parents would be upset about not being told sooner.

“Of course,” Nora replied warmly, giving Jemma’s arm a little squeeze. When the bathroom door opened and Daisy stepped out, Nora took her place, closing the door behind her.

As she approached her, Jemma handed Daisy the spare blanket and pillow that she’d found in her closet, and as Daisy took them, she asked, “So, that’s the infamous Mama Fitz, huh?”

With a little laugh, Jemma replied, “Yes, that’s her.”

Daisy nodded, setting the armload of bedding down on the couch and said plainly, “Well, I like her. If her son’s anything like her, then we shouldn’t have any problems.”

“He’s just as wonderful,” Jemma assured her, feeling her heart filling with warmth in her chest at just the thought of Fitz, and how kind and gentle and loving he was.

“Yeah, well, I’ll believe it when I see it,” Daisy teased, throwing a smirk at Jemma over her shoulder as she spread out the blanket and fluffed her pillow.

Jemma gave her a teasing little shove as she brushed past her, saying pointedly, “ _Goodnight_ , Daisy,” to which she received a laughing reply of her own goodnight. She passed Nora on her way to her bedroom, and wished her goodnight as well, and once she was settled in her bed, she pulled her laptop onto her lap and opened it up.

Fitz’s schedule hadn’t allowed for them to talk that day, unfortunately, but she could send him emails whenever she wanted to, which he checked for every morning and night religiously, so she opened a new email and began typing.

_Hi Fitz,_

_Since I know it’s what you want to hear first: everything went just fine at my appointment today. The baby’s healthy and growing at the average rate, and their heartbeat sounded absolutely perfect – I can’t wait for you to hear it, it’s incredible Fitz, truly._

_Oh, and you’ll never believe who I received a surprise visit from today. Go ahead, guess, you’ll never get it._

_…_

_It was your mother._

_Yes, your mother. No, I wasn’t expecting it either. But Fitz, it really was so delightful to see her again – to be honest, I’m not sure who I missed more, you or her. It’s really a toss-up. We spent the day together, and she’s staying the night so we can have some more time tomorrow before she heads home. Oh, and I’ll have you know that she’s already started in on a baby blanket and a pair of booties. Don’t roll your eyes; I think it’s sweet!_

_I’m still free to chat tomorrow night if you are. I know I’m looking forward to talking to you, to seeing you – and, I’ll tell you all about Daisy’s birthday party. I even invited your mum! She and Daisy actually took to each other pretty quickly, so perhaps Daisy won’t give you as hard a time when you finally meet her in person._

_But, that’s probably just wishful thinking._

_Hopefully, I’ll see you tomorrow, and I love you, Fitz. Have a good day!_

_Jemma_

After she’d sent the email, Jemma closed her laptop and set it on bedside table, curling up under her covers to try and get some sleep before tomorrow, which would no doubt be yet another eventful day.

She briefly ran back over the day in her mind, a little smile tugging at her lips, and she found herself truly happy that Nora had come to visit. It was true that she had missed the woman that had been like a second mother to her growing up, and to know that she was back in her life, now in a much more permanent fashion, was comforting in a way that she hadn’t imagined it would be.

But, it was then that she realized that there had been another, surprise advantage to her visit – having her there was the closest that Jemma had felt to Fitz since he’d left for the space station. To hear her stories, to hear the love and affection in her voice when she talked about him, and to be around the only other person in the world that loved him as much as she did…it had honestly done her a world of good.

And with that feeling warming her from the inside out, Jemma fell asleep with the smile still firmly on her face.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, yes, I know this is about a hundred years late, but I have been Busy, so here it finally is, Chapter Five.
> 
> Also, check out this amazing [edit](http://ughfitz.tumblr.com/post/173942382741/these-stars-will-guide-us-home-by) @ughfitz made for this fic for my birthday!!

Moving about her bedroom while she gathered her clothes and got dressed for the day, Jemma’s head was already fully focused on work, and the new project that they’d be starting in the lab that day. Mentally going over the schedule that she’d drawn up for the next couple of weeks once more, the very last thing that she was paying attention to was her shirt as she pulled it on and began doing up the buttons.

But, she stopped abruptly, all thoughts of the lab disappearing, when she had to struggle to get the two sides of the shirt to meet over her midsection.

For a moment, she gazed blankly down her body at the stretched material, but then she blinked and glanced up to catch her reflection in her nearby mirror, turning so that she was in profile. And, sure enough, there it was, right there in front of her.

Jemma’s stomach now had a little, barely there curve to it.

Her breath catching slightly in her throat, she stared at her reflection wordlessly and slowly lifted a hand to press against it, her fingertips lightly trailing over the skin. She was a biologist, of course, and she’d also seen the ultrasound herself, so she knew, logically, that there was a fetus growing inside of her.

But, to see the physical evidence of her body shifting and changing, making room for the baby that she and Fitz had created to grow inside of her…it struck her absolutely breathless.

Then, just as abruptly as the realization and subsequent amazement at the discovery of her baby bump had hit her, the joy of it came crashing down around her when it occurred to her that she couldn’t just call for Fitz to come into the room with her, she couldn’t show him her new little bump, and she couldn’t take his hand in hers and press it against belly as they shared this moment with each other.

In the mirror, she could see the smile melting off of her face before she sharply turned away from it and stepped over to her closet to pick a different shirt, one that wouldn’t put her stomach on display quite so much.

Of course, Jemma had known ever since that first positive pregnancy test just how difficult it was going to be without Fitz physically there with her throughout the pregnancy, but it was only now that she was truly beginning to _feel_ it – and she was still just at the beginning of her second trimester.

However, she didn’t have time to wallow in it, so she swallowed back the sudden wave of loneliness and tugged a looser shirt over her head. On her way out of her bedroom, she darted one last look in the mirror to make sure that her tiny bump wasn’t visible, then grabbed her phone off of her dresser.

As she stepped out into the hall and toward the living room, she distracted herself by checking her messages, and grimaced at the realization that she’d missed several more calls from her mother. Tucking the phone into the pocket of her jeans, she finally came to the resolution that she’d call her mother today, and just _tell_ her about the pregnancy already.

Upon entering the living room a moment later, Jemma found Daisy sprawled on the couch, watching the morning news and eating a bowl of what was no doubt sugary cereal. “Hey!” she greeted around a mouthful of it, milk dribbling down her chin as she offered her a guilty little grin.

Rolling her eyes fondly at her friend, Jemma handed her a napkin from the little pile on their coffee table and replied, “Good morning, Daisy.” For a moment, she considered telling her about the baby bump, but it simply didn’t feel right – and, well, she wasn’t even sure that she was excited to share the news with anyone anymore.

So, when Daisy asked after a moment, “So, how goes the tiny-person-growing?”, Jemma simply ignored the opportunity.

Instead, she told her, “I’m actually craving ice cream right about now. Do we still have some Ben & Jerry’s?”

“We should – if you haven’t eaten it all,” Daisy teased, adding after a moment, “but man, I wished I’d known that you’d be craving it; I’d so rather have had ice cream for breakfast.”

With another little roll of her eyes and heading to the kitchen, Jemma called over her shoulder, “Finish your cereal, and maybe I’ll grab an extra spoon!”

And, without missing a beat, Daisy shot back, “Yes Mom!”

-

Later that day, while Jemma was on her break, she stepped out onto the little patio behind the lab and into the late summer heat, perching at a picnic table and _finally_ dialing her mother’s number. As it began to ring, she anxiously tapped her fingertips on her knee, attempting to find the _right_ way to tell her mother that now she wasn’t just getting married to a man that she’d only been romantically involved with for twenty-four hours prior, but she was also carrying his child.

And, well, much like it had all day long while she’d been going over and over possible ways to word the confession, she came up completely empty.

But, then she was suddenly out of time, as the call was picked up, and her mother answered, “ _Hello?_ ”

“Hi, Mum,” Jemma greeted, crossing one leg over the other, only to uncross them just a moment later.

There was a pause, then her mother said, “ _Now, who is this? Because it couldn’t possibly be my daughter – she’s far too busy to talk to her poor old mum._ ”

Giving a little roll of her eyes at her mother’s theatrics, she told her, “ _Mum_ , I’m sorry, I’ve just been rather busy lately.”

“ _Yes, I know_ ,” her mother assured her, seemingly finished teasing Jemma, “ _you_ are _planning a wedding, after all_.”

A bit surprised at the words, Jemma’s eyebrows rose on her forehead and she sucked in a short breath. Amazingly, she’d all-but forgotten about having to plan the wedding in the wake of finding out that she was pregnant; of course she _remembered_ that she was going to marry Fitz, but the how had easily slipped her mind as she focused instead on doctor’s appointments and reading up on pregnancy and child-rearing.

“Oh, well, yes,” Jemma responded, making a bit of a face as she tilted her head back and forth, trying to figure out how to ease the fact that she _hadn’t_ been planning a wedding because she was instead planning for a baby in a handful of months into the conversation. “About that –”

“ _Have you and Fitz talked at all about venues?_ ” her mother asked, not giving Jemma an opportunity to reply before she went on, “ _You know you have to reserve them well in advance – are you still planning to have the wedding as soon as Fitz comes home?_ ”

“Ah, yes, I suppose so. We…we haven’t really talked about venues though, no.”

She could hear the frown in her mother’s voice as she questioned, “ _Well, have you begun picking out the wedding party? Or looked at any dresses? You must at least have an idea of the style you’d like. Oh, perhaps I’ll take a trip out there when you do end up going dress shopping; I always imagined being there, you know_.”

“Um, sure, that’d be great, Mum,” Jemma replied, lifting a hand to her forehead and briefly closing her eyes. “I…well, I’m probably going to ask my friend Daisy to be my maid of honor, but…no, we haven’t… I’ve just been busy, Mum, and with Fitz at the Space Station…”

“ _Yes, I know, but goodness dear, where has your head been lately?_ ” her mother asked, concern and confusion both obvious in her voice. “ _You were so excited about the wedding when you first told us about it._ ” She paused, then seemed to have the sudden impression that it was all due to Jemma having second thoughts about getting married, as she started consolingly, “ _You know sweetheart, sometimes we make these snap decisions, but once we have the time to give them some thought, we realize that we aren’t so sure and it doesn’t feel right anymore_.”

Startled, Jemma tried to interrupt, “Mum, no,” but her mother seemed to be on a roll, continuing right on as though she hadn’t said anything.

“ _Perhaps it was your friendship with Fitz that clouded your mind; you two used to be so close, and you may have just wanted to feel that closeness again somehow. I mean, he was going off to space, and a marriage would be a good way to keep him close_ –”

“Oh my god, _Mum_!” Jemma groaned, unable to believe that this was happening. Finally, when she couldn’t take it any longer, she interrupted loudly, “Mum! Stop – I’m pregnant!”

It worked, of course. Perhaps a little _too_ well.

Her mother stopped talking immediately, going completely silent on the other line. Jemma waited and waited, giving her some time to digest the news, but when a full two minutes had gone by, she prompted with a little wince, “…Mum?”

There was another beat of silence, then her mother whispered, “ _Oh my…_ ” She took a breath, then tried again, “ _Jemma, darling, are you sure?_ ”

Jemma arched an eyebrow and glanced down at her stomach, absently cupping her new bump with her free hand. “Yes, I’m quite sure. I’ve had an ultrasound – I can send you a copy of that, if you’d like.”

Going silent again for another beat, her mother then questioned lowly, worriedly, “ _Is that why you’re not focusing on the wedding?_ ” Then, her voice dropped even lower, to a whisper once more, as she asked, “ _How did Fitz take it?_ ”

For a moment, Jemma didn’t understand quite why her mother’s voice had taken on the tone that it had, almost as though…

 _Oh_.

“Mum, oh my god!” Jemma cried, her eyes growing wide as she hastily shook her head, even though her mother couldn’t see it. “I haven’t – the baby is _Fitz’s_!”

At that, her mother breathed an audible sigh of relief. “ _Oh good, that’s…I’m glad. I didn’t mean to imply – but he’s been gone a couple of months now, you know, so I assumed –_ ” She cut herself off, then asked quickly, “ _Wait a moment, how pregnant_ are _you, Jemma?_ ”

Squeezing her eyes closed and biting her lip, she hastened to explain, “Well, I’m thirteen weeks, and I know – I ­ _know_ – that I should’ve told you and Dad sooner, but I couldn’t quite figure out the right way to do it, so…I’m sorry.” She let out a long breath then, waiting for her mother’s reply.

It took a moment, but then she said, “ _Oh, don’t apologize sweetheart, I understand. I’m just glad that you told me now._ ” She let out a soft, amazed little breath, adding, “ _My goodness, a_ baby _. It’s wonderful, dear, congratulations_.”

“Thank you, Mum,” Jemma murmured, letting out a quiet breath of relief. “You…you can tell Dad, if you’d like, but…well, I think I should be the one to tell the rest of the family, if that’s alright?” Then, she could put it off a bit longer before she started getting calls from concerned aunts and uncles and cousins, all wondering what she was _thinking_.

“ _Well of course, Jemma. Though, you should expect a call from your father any day now, then._ ”

“I know,” Jemma assured her with a laugh. She threw a quick glance at her watch then, and told her mother, “Mum, I’ve got to get back to work in a few minutes, but…I’ll talk to you soon, alright?”

“ _You’d better_ ,” her mother replied, and though the stern tone of her voice was mostly teasing, Jemma knew that she was serious.

“I will,” Jemma promised, adding, “Love you, Mum.”

“ _I love you too, darling – and send me that ultrasound photo soon!_ ”

With another little laugh, Jemma repeated, “I will,” then hung up the phone, standing from the picnic table and sliding her phone back into her pocket. As she began to head back into the building, she felt a measure of relief, and thought to herself that that hadn’t been so bad. And, she was definitely glad that her mother knew now; if she ever had any questions or advice or simply needed to talk, it was good to know that she could just ring her mother.

Now, the only thing left to do was tell the rest of her family.

…Perhaps she’d just send out an email.

-

That night, Daisy had gone out with a few of her friends from work, which left Jemma in the flat by herself; they’d asked her to come along, of course, but not only was she tired from well, just being pregnant in general, but she was also expecting a call from Fitz.

So, she was perched on their couch with her laptop on her lap and yet another half-empty carton of ice cream in hand when Fitz’s face filled her screen, right on time. “Hi,” she greeted warmly around the spoonful of chocolate chip cookie dough.

“ _Oh come on now, that’s not fair – you can’t eat ice cream in front of me!_ ” Fitz complained, making a face at her and folding his arms over his chest.

Raising her eyebrows challengingly, Jemma then took a large bite of the ice cream pointedly, waiting until she’d swallowed to shoot back, “Why? It’s because of _you_ that I’m craving this stuff; all I’ve wanted for weeks is _sugar_. I actually stopped on my way home from work today to buy _cupcakes_ from a bakery – and then I ate them all!”

Fitz grinned unrepentantly at the story, replying teasingly, “ _Don’t sound so upset about it; you’re living the dream, Jem._ ”

Narrowing her eyes, she questioned curiously, “So, what do you miss more, then: junk food or me?”

He made a show of thinking it over, tapping his chin with his index finger and humming loudly in consideration, “ _Hmmm_ ,” but when she cried out his name around a laugh, another grin slipped through and he replied, “You _, of course. And you know that means I_ really _love you, because I sure do love junk food._ ” He paused, then asked, “ _So, how was your day?_ ”

“Well, I finally told my mum about the baby,” she admitted.

Fitz raised his eyebrows in surprise, asking, “ _Yeah? How did that go?_ ”

Jemma almost told him that her mother’s first thought was that she was pregnant with another man’s child, but then thought better of it and simply replied, “Pretty well; better than I expected, actually, once she got over the shock.”

“ _That’s good_ ,” he commented, nodding and smiling supportively. “ _I know you’ve wanted to tell her for awhile now._ ”

“Yes,” Jemma agreed with a little smile of her own. “I’m really glad that I did.” Just as she was about to move on and tell him about how things had gone at work, she remembered that morning, and felt the same flutter of excitement that she had at the first realization. Even though it wouldn’t be _perfect_ or exactly how she’d imagined it, she knew then that she wanted to share it with him, so she told him, “I’ve got to show you something.”

“ _Sure_ ,” he agreed easily.

She placed her laptop and the carton of ice cream on the coffee table, then stood, briefly readjusting the screen so that he could still see her. Then, she grasped the hem of her t-shirt in her hands.

“ _Whoa, wait a minute,_ ” Fitz started, his eyes growing wide as he shot a worried glance over his shoulder, “ _I’m not alone, Jemma._ ”

Rolling her eyes fiercely, she didn’t bother to respond verbally and instead just lifted her shirt until her stomach had been exposed, turning to the side.

He was quiet for a lengthy moment, and his expression hadn’t changed even slightly, so she finally had to prompt, “Fitz? Do…do you see it?” And then, just in case he didn’t, she lifted her free hand to stroke over the little bump with her palm, then traced the shape of it with her fingertips.

“ _Oh my god_ ,” he whispered, a reverence in his tone that had a delicate little shudder rolling down her spine. Though his eyes were still wide, she could see now that he was gazing at her stomach with something like awe, as though he couldn’t quite wrap that brilliant mind of his around what he was seeing.

“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” she murmured, tearing her gaze from Fitz’s face to look down at the bump herself, thinking of their baby growing right there inside of her, just beneath her fingers.

“ _Yeah_ ,” he breathed. “ _I…I dunno why, but…it’s really hitting me right now that you’re…you’re having my baby._ ” Then he gave a short, breathy little laugh and shook his head. “ _Holy_ shit _, Jemma Simmons is having my baby_.”

Giving a laugh of her own, Jemma dropped her shirt back into place and retook her seat, tugging the laptop back onto her lap. “Yes, I am – who would’ve thought?”

Fitz scoffed at that. “ _Oh, just about everyone we went to school with; no one believed us when we said that we weren’t together_.”

“Well, perhaps that was because you were apparently always gazing at me like some lovesick puppy. And don’t even bother to deny it – I’ve been looking back at our old pictures, and it’s so _obvious_ now.” Giving a little shake of her head at herself, she added, “I can’t quite believe how blind I was to it back then.”

He grimaced a bit, and she could tell even through the camera that he was flushing with embarrassment. “ _Ah, alright, guilty as charged._ _But, y’know, in your defense, you weren’t_ supposed _to see it, so._ ”

Jemma pursed her lips at that, then said decisively, “Well, I’m just glad that I see it now.” For a moment, she thought back to Fitz’s love confession, which truthfully felt as though it had happened ages ago now even though it’d just been a handful of months. The memory had warmth filling her and her heart feeling as though it was too full to be contained within her chest any longer. But, it also reminded her of their engagement, and her mother asking about their wedding plans earlier. “You know, we should probably get started on making decisions for the wedding soon.”

“ _Oh, that’s right,_ ” Fitz said, his eyebrows rising, and it was clear that it had slipped in his mind too with the baby taking up the majority of their thoughts. “ _Well…what do we decide first, then?_ ”

She mulled it over for a moment, then gave an embarrassed little laugh and admitted, “We should probably choose a date before we make any other decisions, shouldn’t we?”

He grimaced slightly, chuckling as he agreed, “ _Yeah, probably_.” He was quiet a moment, then told her, “ _I know we talked about getting married as soon as I got back, but what with the baby now…I’ll leave it up to you if you wanna have the wedding before or after they’re born_.”

Jemma gave it a moment of thought, but it wasn’t long before she replied, “I have to admit, it does seem more practical to have the wedding _after_ ; things before will be a little hectic, no doubt.”

“ _Alright,_ ” he agreed easily. “ _Any ideas, then?_ ”

“My due date is February 5th,” she reminded him absently as she picked up her phone from where it had been lying on the couch beside her, pulling up her calendar on it and scrolling through the months to February of the following year. “We should leave a bit of time between the birth and the wedding, and Saturdays are always better for weddings, so…” Stopping on March, she scanned the days available, then offered, “Alright, how does March 10th sound?”

“ _Like the perfect day to marry you_ ,” Fitz answered, his voice soft.

Jemma glanced up from her phone to meet his warm, loving gaze, and felt her stomach swoop with absolute love and adoration for him. “Yes, it does,” she agreed in a slightly breathless murmur. “So…it’s a date, then.”

“ _It’s a date_.”

And to herself, Jemma couldn’t help but think, _March tenth…that’s the day that I’m going to marry best friend_ , and it had her heart beating just a little bit quicker in her chest.


	6. Chapter 6

It wasn’t even noon yet, and Jemma had already been to see three flats for rent in the area with the realtor that Mack had given her the number for. Though she’d started the day with high hopes of finally finding a future home for her, Fitz, and their child, she only had found herself increasingly underwhelmed and ultimately discouraged by every single one that she’d been taken to so far. One had been lovely, but completely out of their price range, another had had everything that they needed – except a second bedroom, and one had checked all of their boxes, but was simply too far from her lab to be a good fit.

Now, they were just stepping into the fourth potential flat for the day, and the realtor immediately went off on a spiel about how it was “cozy”, that it was within their price range, close enough to her work, and was a two bedroom, seemingly delighted by the prospect of a perfect fit for them. All that Jemma could see, however, was how positively cramped the space was.

In the kitchen, there was barely enough room to turn around between the counter and the refrigerator. The master bedroom could _hardly_ be called as such, given that there wouldn’t be much room for more than a bed, and the second bedroom was more appropriately termed a closet. And, their final stop, the bathroom was absolutely _laughable_ , with about a square foot of floor space that wasn’t taken up by the shower or the sink.

By the time that they’d finished the tour (if it could even be called one) and returned to the entrance, Jemma was utterly sure that it was not at _all_ what she was looking for; it was not the place that Jemma wanted to make a home with Fitz, and it was not the place that she wanted to raise their child. But, at this rate, she was afraid that it was looking as though she was going to have to bite the bullet, and simply choose which of the flats she’d seen that day was the one that they could compromise on.

“Can we have a moment?” Bobbi, who had tagged along with Jemma for the day, suddenly asked the realtor kindly.

“Oh, of course,” she replied, flashing them a smile before stepping out of the flat and into the hall outside, quietly closing the door behind her.

“You okay?” Bobbi murmured, stepping closer to Jemma and resting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

At that moment, it felt as though the stress of _everything_ was finally hitting her all at once, making it difficult to breathe and causing her hands to tremble slightly at her sides. Trying not to give into the sudden urge to cry, she told Bobbi shakily, “I…I’m planning a wedding, planning for a baby, trying to find a new flat, and all while still working to pay bills. I don’t blame Fitz – I _don’t_ ; he was going to space before I ever showed back up in his life, and I made the decision to marry him with that in mind, and I made the decision to have this baby with that in mind, but I just…I didn’t think that it would be so _hard_ to do this all by myself.”

It was something that she hadn’t wanted to admit to herself, let alone anyone else, for months now, but she had been able to feel it building and building ever since she’d found out about the pregnancy, until it simply became too much. Her life had changed drastically in the past six months, and it was all such _wonderful_ change, but it was still just so _much_ to handle by herself. She hated to complain, because she was so _happy_ to be with Fitz, to be having their baby, and she’d thought that she could handle it, but…

“Hey,” Bobbi said gently, giving her shoulder a little squeeze to gain her attention, “you’re not alone, remember? You still have Fitz, who loves you like crazy and wants to be there for you, and he’ll be home before you know it. And, I have no doubt that he wishes that he was here just as much as you do.” With a little smile, she added, “Besides, even if Fitz isn’t _physically_ here with you, _we_ are; me, Daisy, Elena, Mack, even Hunter – you are _so_ far from alone, Jem. Plus,” she finished, taking one of Jemma’s hands in hers and lifting it to cover the growing swell of her stomach, “you’re never _really_ alone.”

The tightness in her chest easing slightly at Bobbi’s comforting words, Jemma smiled softly. Stroking a hand over her little bump (well, not _quite_ as little anymore – she’d really started popping in the past few weeks), she murmured in agreement, “No, I’m not.” Calming back down now, she gave a little wince in embarrassment and apologized, “I’m sorry for my little…outburst.”

Bobbi leveled a dry look at her, reminding her, “Hon, you’re entitled to a little breakdown every now and then, you know – with everything that you’re going through right now, I’d be more concerned about you if you _weren’t_ effected somehow.”

“Yes, I know, but…” Jemma trailed off, shaking her head and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear with her free hand.

She apparently didn’t need to finish her sentence for Bobbi to understand though, given that she told her then, “You’re Jemma Simmons – you’ve been pretty damn unshakable as long as I’ve known you, and you’re one of the strongest people that I’ve ever met, so I know that you can do all of this – _but_ , it’s okay to need help, Jemma. That’s what friends are for, after all; you don’t have to put all of this on yourself.”

With another small smile, Jemma nodded gratefully, and promised, “Yes, I know, I’ll try to remember that.”

Gesturing to the flat around them, Bobbi went on, “And you know, you have _time_ , Jemma, and you don’t have to settle for something less than what you want. The perfect home for you and Fitz and your baby is out there, and we’re going to help you find it and get it ready for you guys, alright?”

“Alright,” Jemma agreed softly, “thank you, Bobbi, truly.”

“Don’t mention it,” Bobbi insisted, brushing her thanks off with a wave of her hand.

There was soft knock on the door, just before the realtor popped her head back in, asking, “How are we doing? Have you made a decision?”

Glancing over at Bobbi briefly, Jemma nodded and replied, “Yes; I think that I’m going to keep looking.”

-

After parting ways with the realtor, Jemma and Bobbi stopped for a quick lunch, then headed over to her OB for the appointment that she had scheduled that afternoon. On their way inside the building, Bobbi asked her curiously, “So, are you excited?”

Mulling over her response, Jemma glanced down at her stomach and rubbed a gentle hand over it, finally replying, “I am, I suppose. But, mostly, it’ll be a relief – once I know the baby’s sex, it’ll make preparing much easier.” Raising her gaze back up to meet Bobbi’s, she added, “Do you know that there’s barely such a thing as gender neutral anymore when it comes to babies? It makes it terribly difficult to buy clothing, bibs, even _pacifiers_ – everything’s got ‘princess’ or ‘little man’ printed on it, and it’s _ridiculous_.”

Chuckling to herself, Bobbi replied, “Alright, point taken.” She stood by quietly as Jemma checked in at the front desk, but as they took their seats in the waiting room, she pointed out, “I hope you know that if you’re having a girl, you will be receiving a bunch of cute little dresses from us. I mean, those things are _adorable_ , and incredibly hard to resist.”

“Oh, I’m aware,” Jemma assured her with a little laugh, pulling her phone out of her pocket and opening her email. Quickly, she typed one up for Fitz, informing him that she and Bobbi were at the office and currently sitting in the waiting room. Once she was finished, she turned to Bobbi and told her sincerely, “Thank you so much for doing this, Bobbi.”

“I’m happy to, Jem, seriously,” Bobbi replied with a grin, reaching over to give her hand a brief squeeze.

Jemma returned the smile before glancing back down at her phone, where she had already received an email in response from Fitz, simply saying “ _okay_ ”.

It was another few minutes before they were called in, and another few before Dr. Reid arrived and checked Jemma over to make sure that everything was still going well. It was only once the doctor had her get in position for the ultrasound that Jemma finally handed her phone over to Bobbi, who began fiddling with it.

“Thank you for letting me do this, Dr. Reid,” Jemma said gratefully, giving her doctor a warm smile.

Still in the process of getting everything set up, Dr. Reid returned the smile, replying, “Of course; I’m glad that I could help.”

“Just about ready,” Bobbi informed them, turning the phone to face them just as Fitz’s face appeared on the screen.

Immediately, Jemma let out a silent breath of relief at the sight of him, greeting him a bit breathlessly, “Hi Fitz.”

“ _Hey_ ,” Fitz murmured simply in reply, an answering smile curving his lips.

Turning the phone slightly so that he could see her waving at him, Bobbi said, “Hey, nice to finally meet you, Fitz.”

His chuckle filtering out of the phone’s speaker, Fitz responded, “ _Ah, you must be Bobbi. Nice to meet you, too._ ”

“And this is my OB, Dr. Reid,” Jemma added, gesturing to the doctor.

Currently spreading the gel over Jemma’s stomach, Dr. Reid threw a little smile in Fitz’s direction, then asked them, “Are you ready?”

“Yes, we are.”

“ _Yeah_ ,” Fitz agreed, sounding a bit breathless himself now.

Bobbi moved slightly then, making sure that Fitz had a good view of the screen as Dr. Reid pressed the transducer probe to Jemma’s stomach. She moved it around a bit, keeping an eye on the black and white images on the screen, until finally there was a clear view of their baby.

Jemma heard Fitz suck in a short breath, and glanced over at him to take in the awe in his eyes, the way that his lips had parted slightly, as though he was having some trouble catching his breath. She wished then that she could hold his hand, could feel his fingers squeezing hers, a lifeline, a reminder that they were in this together. But, she quickly reminded herself that it was simply enough that he was able to experience this along with her.

“Everything looks great,” Dr. Reid informed them, “we’re right on schedule with growth and development, and the heartbeat is nice and strong.” Then, glancing back up at Jemma, she asked, “You want to know the sex, yes?”

“Yes, please,” Jemma replied, feeling her heart skip a beat in nervous excitement, throwing another glance over at Fitz to see that his expression reflected the same emotions that she was feeling.

Dr. Reid only had to look at the screen another moment before a smile spread across her lips and she said simply, “Congratulations, you’re having a baby girl.”

Jemma had heard the words, but it took a moment for her to fully wrap her mind around what they _meant_ , that she and Fitz were having a _daughter_. She’d thought that she’d of course be happy, but that just knowing that the baby was healthy was enough, and that knowing the sex would just be a preemptive strike in preparing for the birth.

However, she hadn’t been in any way prepared for knowing that they were going to have a daughter, or for the way that her heart swelled with utter _love_ for her little girl, the very idea of her stealing away Jemma’s breath.

She was so caught up in her emotion over the news, she barely noticed as Dr. Reid finished up the ultrasound and wiped the gel off of her stomach with a nearby towel, barely heard it as the doctor offered to give them a moment.

She took her phone automatically as Bobbi handed it to her wordlessly, just barely catching the ‘ _congrats_ ’ that she mouthed to her before following the doctor out of the room and closing the door behind them.

“ _A daughter_ ,” Fitz whispered after a beat of stunned silence, drawing Jemma’s gaze to his, and she caught sight of his widened eyes and awe-struck smile, just before he pressed his hand over his mouth, muffling his slightly disbelieving laughter.

Her mouth curved into a smile so wide that it hurt her cheeks, and it was only when something wet hit her lip that she realized that she was crying. “I know,” she breathed, “I _know_.”

“ _God, she’s gonna be_ gorgeous,” he murmured, leaning back in his chair and running a hand absently through his hair. “ _She’s gonna look just like you, I know it_.”

“Nonsense,” Jemma replied, even as she laughed softly, more tears falling from her lashes to land on her face, dripping off the edge of her chin to wet the fabric of her shirt. “She’ll be all the more gorgeous if she looks like her father.”

Fitz met her eyes then, an awed adoration standing clearly in them, and it had her sucking in a quiet breath, her heartbeat picking up speed slightly in her chest. “ _I love you, and I love our daughter_. _So much, Jemma._ ”

“We love you too, Fitz,” she said softly in reply, a quiet conviction in her tone; she was absolutely sure that truer words had never been spoken.

Though the affection remained in his expression, a frown tugged at her lips as she watched a shadow pass across it, his shoulders slumping slightly. “ _I just can’t wait to be home so that I can hold you, and I can hold our daughter, so that we can be a family_.”

She couldn’t wait for that day either, and she wished desperately that he was there with her right that moment, and she considered telling him that. But, then she thought about what Bobbi had said earlier, and instead, she told him, “Well, you’ll be home before we both know it, and that’s what we should focus on; I’m taking care of things here, and you’re in _space_ , and that’s amazing, Fitz – I’m so proud of you.”

Fitz smiled shyly at her words, shrugging and rubbing at the back of his neck. “ _It’s pretty amazing, yeah, but…it’s got nothing on you. You, Jemma…you have always been the most incredible thing that I’ve ever laid eyes on, and now that you’re having our…our_ daughter _, you’ve only become more so. Though, I didn’t think that was even possible, to be honest. I…am_ so _in awe of you, you have no idea_.”

Heart in her throat, Jemma blinked back a fresh batch of tears as she beamed at him. Shaking her head, she replied in a whisper, “I think I have a pretty good idea, actually.”

-

“I can’t believe that you’re having a _daughter_ ,” Daisy said later that night, shaking her head and grinning as she took a sip of her beer. She shifted slightly to face Jemma better from the chair that she was curled up in on the back porch of Elena and Mack’s house, pointing out excitedly, “That is going to be the cutest little girl _alive_ , oh my god.”

Imagining for what felt like the hundredth time that day what a little girl that was half her and half Fitz was going to look like, Jemma smiled warmly and agreed, “I _know_. I’m already afraid that I’m going to be one of those mothers with a phone full of pictures of their child doing absolutely nothing but being cute.”

“Just think of the Christmas cards,” Bobbi added, gesturing toward Jemma with her own beer bottle. “I fully expect to get one with pictures of that baby on Santa’s lap and dressed as a reindeer.”

“Do you have any ideas for names yet?” Elena asked curiously, crossing one leg over the other and leaning back in her own chair.

Pursing her lips, Jemma shook her head in response, explaining, “Fitz and I haven’t had much chance to talk about it yet. I’ve been browsing some baby name books, but nothing has stood out to me yet. I mean, maybe now that we know it’s a girl, it’ll be a bit easier.” She paused, then went on, “Even if it isn’t, though, I’m confident that everything will fall into place eventually.” Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a small smile crossing Bobbi’s lips.

“Oh, speaking of that,” Elena said suddenly, perking up slightly and sitting back up in her chair, “one of our neighbors mentioned something about moving out in a few months, when her lease is up. Perhaps you should look into it; you are still looking, right?”

“Right, yes,” Jemma agreed, nodding eagerly and unable to believe her sudden good fortune, “thank you, Elena. I’ll definitely look into it.” Glancing over her shoulder at the spacious backyard of Mack and Elena’s house, and at the similarly welcoming homes on either side of theirs, she thought to herself that this would be the perfect neighborhood to raise their daughter in. After all, it was roughly a fifteen minute drive from her work, it was a residential area with other families living in it, there was a park just down the street, _and_ it would be close to her friends.

It seemed almost too good to be true, honestly, but she hoped that this simply meant that things were finally starting to look up a bit.

Filtering out the voices of her friends talking and laughing then, Jemma tilted her head back to gaze up at the darkened sky above, at the spread of shining stars there. She thought of Fitz, up there somewhere, and though he always felt so far away to her, she felt almost like she could see him then – if she could see the stars, then he couldn’t be _that_ far away, not really.

And, well, even if he was, she _did_ always have a part of him with her, growing right there inside of her.


	7. Chapter 7

“Is there any chance that I _don’t_ look pregnant?” Jemma asked a bit desperately, shifting so that her profile was visible in the mirror hanging up in the guest bedroom of her parents’ home.

A snort filtered through the speakers of her phone, and Daisy answered flatly, “ _No_.”

Grimacing, Jemma brought her phone back up to eye-level, catching Daisy’s sympathetic smile on her screen. “Yeah, I thought so.”

Daisy shook her head, and said once more, “ _I can’t believe you haven’t told your family that you’re pregnant yet._ ”

“My parents know,” she pointed out stubbornly, plopping down on the edge of the bed and sighing. “I just…never got around to the rest. I _am_ a bit busy these days, you know.”

“ _Yeah, well, I think you’re out of time, Jem. Unless, you know, your cousin decided to have her wedding in the dark._ ”

Jemma rolled her eyes at Daisy’s very unhelpful humor, letting out a quiet huff. Truthfully, she’d thought about skipping out on Beatrice’s wedding altogether, claiming that work was keeping her in the States, but by then she’d already RSVP’d and bought her plane ticket. And, in the end, not having told her family that she was pregnant seemed like a ridiculous reason not to go, especially when she hadn’t been back to England in absolute ages.

“Besides, it’s not as if it’s my _whole_ family that I’ll be seeing today – just my father’s side,” Jemma reminded her, though she did have to admit that it was a rather weak argument. And, well, it hadn’t been her mother’s side of the family that she was so afraid of.

Daisy arched her eyebrows at that, clearly unimpressed. “ _Well, lemme know how it goes, okay? You know I love family drama_.”

“You’re horrible,” Jemma told her, giving another roll of her eyes when Daisy simply grinned and winked at that.

“ _Have fuuuun_ ,” Daisy teased in a singsong voice, moments before she ended the video call.

Sighing, Jemma dropped her phone onto the bed beside her, then rested both of her hands on her rounded abdomen. She’d tried to make herself look a little _less_ pregnant by wearing a black dress with a flowing skirt, but her six-months-pregnant belly seemingly refused to be hidden.

And black was supposed to be _slimming_.

“Jemma darling, are you ready to go?” her mother called up from the bottom of the staircase.

“Be there in a moment!” Jemma replied, letting out a little grunt of exertion as she pushed herself back to her feet. She made sure to grab her phone and her purse on her way out of the room, but paused in the doorway. Unlocking her phone, she took a moment just to gaze at her background longingly.

It was a picture of her and Fitz at their high school graduation, and she was kissing his bright red cheek, his cap knocked slightly askew on his curls. The picture had to be one of her favorites of the two of them together, but it made her heart ache every time to think that it was one of the last pictures that they’d been in together (something that she was going to remedy as soon as he was home).

She wished then that Fitz could be there with her, that she could lean on him for support that day, and that she didn’t have to do this _alone_. Though she was a progressive woman and didn’t believe in the antiquated notion that she needed a husband to be a mother, she had to admit that it would certainly be a lot easier to tell her family that she was going to have his baby with Fitz actually _present_.

But, Jemma quickly brushed off the now familiar wave of loneliness, locking her phone once more and slipping it into her purse. There was no use dwelling on the impossible, after all, and as she so often had to remind herself, she’d signed herself up for all of this when she decided to see the pregnancy through while Fitz was gone.

And, fortunately, it would only have to be like this for another few weeks. It was that reminder that was going to get her through today, and all of the days following it until Fitz finally came home.

Upon reaching the bottom of the staircase, Jemma found her mother and father lingering there, her father double-checking that his tie was straight, and her mother touching up her lipstick in the hall mirror. “I’m ready, sorry,” she apologized as she joined them.

Her mother turned to look at her, and her face lit up at the sight of her, eyes immediately dropping to Jemma’s stomach. Ever since they’d picked her up at the airport last night, her mother simply hadn’t been able to get over her ‘adorable little belly’. “My goodness, look at you! Oh sweetheart, you look wonderful.”

“I look _pregnant_ , but thank you, Mum,” Jemma murmured, offering her mother a small smile as she followed her father out the front door.

As her mother paused by the door to lock it, Jemma climbed down the front steps with her father, heading toward the car. He briefly wrapped his arm around her shoulders, giving her a little squeeze as he told her quietly, “Nonsense, you look beautiful, dear. Though I _do_ still think that you’re far too young to be a mum.”

Laughing, Jemma gave her father a squeeze in return. “Thanks, Dad. And, I’m sorry, but I think that it’s a little late to change my mind.”

“You know, Fitz and I are going to have a very lengthy chat when he’s finished with his little space trip, that’s for certain,” he continued, shooting her a little wink to show that he was teasing – mostly.

“ _Dad_ ,” she sighed as she got into the car, rolling her eyes at him as he closed her door for her.

As her mother got into the passenger seat and buckled her seatbelt, she turned slightly to face Jemma in the back, asking curiously, “How have things been, darling? Nora and I were chatting on the phone last weekend, and she said that she hadn’t heard anything new since you told us it was a girl.” Her eyebrows rose as something occurred to her, and she pressed, “Have you and Fitz decided on a name?”

“Things have been good,” Jemma replied, shrugging slightly. “I’ve been busy at work, trying to finish everything that I need to before I go on maternity leave, and I’ve been checking out a few places for us to move into. But no, we haven’t decided on a name.”

“Well, you’ll find the perfect one,” her mother assured her, waving a hand, as though waving away any worries that Jemma might have about it. “Sometimes you don’t even find it until after you’ve given birth, and that little baby is in your arms.”

Chuckling, her father put in over his shoulder, keeping his eyes on the road, “Your mum was convinced that we were going to name you after your great-grandmother, up till she took one look at you and said very seriously, ‘this is not a Helen’.”

“Well, it was true, she isn’t,” her mother replied defensively.

Laughing at the story, Jemma admitted, “I may just have to wait until I see her – right now, the only thing that I know for sure is her surname.”

“You’re hyphenating, aren’t you?” her father asked.

“Yes, ‘Fitz-Simmons’,” she answered with a nod. “Fitz and I haven’t had a chance to discuss surnames for after the wedding yet, so it may change if ours do, but until then that’s what it’ll be.”

“Well, I think it’s lovely,” her mother told her. “That’s what everyone used to call you two at school, if I remember correctly. It was always, ‘Fitzsimmons’ this, and ‘Fitzsimmons’ that – why, I was beginning to wonder if you two had gone and fused yourselves into one being in the school chemistry lab. It certainly wouldn’t change much, what with how much time you spent together.”

Jemma flushed a bit at her mother’s words, replying with a wince, “I would dispute that, but it did take me just a day at university to come to the startling realization that I didn’t know how to be friends with anyone but Fitz.”

Both her parents’ laughter filled the car then, just before her father announced through his chuckles, “Ah, here we are.”

“Oh, I’m sure everyone’s just dying to see you!” her mother told Jemma, shooting her an excited grin over her shoulder. “Engaged _and_ pregnant since the last time they saw you!”

Biting her bottom lip nervously, Jemma waited until her father had parked the car to unbuckle her seatbelt and climb out of the car, lingering by her door as her parents got out as well. Just before they went to head toward the church where her cousin was getting married, she said to them, “Wait. Um, I…I haven’t… _exactly_ told anyone. Yet.”

Her mother and father both paused at her words, then whirled around to face her, eyes equally wide and eyebrows high on their foreheads. “ _Jemma Anne_!” her mother gasped, holding a hand up to her chest.

“I know, I know, but with everything going on, I just…” Jemma twisted her hand around, trying to find a right way to explain it without admitting that she’d simply put the whole thing off. “Forgot,” she finished finally, and admittedly a bit lamely. Seeing that her parents were still gaping at her in disbelief, she folded her arms over her chest and added, “Besides, it’s not as if I’m showing up with a two-year-old child that no one knew I had.”

“No, you’re just showing up six months pregnant with a baby that no one knew you were having,” her mother corrected, her shocked expression morphing into one of disappointment. “Jemma, I just don’t understand why…”

“I…” Trailing off, Jemma lifted a hand to press to her forehead, closing her eyes and sighing. Shaking her head, she told them, “I’d rather not discuss this in a parking lot, if that’s alright.”

Her parents exchanged a glance, but then her father inclined his head in a nod, replying simply, “Alright,” before holding out a hand to gesture Jemma and her mother ahead of him.

As they walked toward the church, her mother said to her softly, “You know how the family can be, sweetheart; I just hope you’re prepared.”

Matching her mother’s tone, Jemma insisted, “It’ll be fine, Mum.”

-

It was _not_ fine.

Confident that all eyes were on Beatrice and her husband sharing their first dance in the low lighting of the event hall where they were having their reception, Jemma let out a soft groan and dropped her head into her hands.

From the moment that she and her parents had entered the church and taken their seats, she’d caught family members staring openly at her, overheard their whispered conversations, and found herself on the receiving end of more than a few disapproving looks. It was everything that she’d wanted to _avoid_ , and though she’d thought that it would be better to just get it over with all at once, she was now fully aware that she had been _wrong_.

At least, now she knew that she’d made the right choice in deciding to have a small wedding, not inviting any of her extended family, and instead just her immediate family and friends.

Shaking her head, Jemma lifted it from her hands and took her phone out of her purse, checking the time and seeing that she still had a few more hours to go before she could escape this nightmare. Changing tacks, she opened her email, and typed one out to Fitz.

_God, I wish you were here with me._

Sending it, she locked her phone and laid it on the table in front of her. Then, she rested her elbow beside it, letting her cheek fall to rest on her hand. She caught the tail-end of the dance, and briefly entertained the fantasy of being there with Fitz in just a few more months, at their own wedding.

The thought had her smiling, forgetting for a moment about her current, rather disastrous circumstances.

“Jemma?”

But, only for a moment.

Turning, Jemma noticed another one of her cousins, Georgie, heading straight for her. Georgie was Beatrice’s youngest sister at sixteen, and had spent many years as a young girl following her older sisters and cousins around, desperate to be included. In fact, Jemma hadn’t seen her since before she’d started high school, and had certainly been in for a surprise when she’d caught sight of the much more mature teenage girl walking down the aisle as one of the bridesmaids.

“Hello Georgie,” Jemma greeted her as she approached the table, offering her a small, slightly wary smile. It was the first time that someone had actually attempted to engage her in conversation so far, and she had absolutely no idea what to expect.

“Hi,” Georgie replied, pulling out the chair beside Jemma’s and dropping down into it. She was quiet a moment, then asked, “So, you’re really pregnant?”

Jemma had to bite her lip to hold back a laugh, the blunt question just so very _Georgie_. “Yes, I am.”

She nodded, taking that in for a moment. Then, she squinted slightly and leaned in, lowering her voice to ask, “Is the dad not in the picture? That’s what everyone keeps saying. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a single mum! Just…”

“No, no, he’s in the picture,” Jemma interrupted her attempt to try and dig herself out of the hole that she’d dug before it could go on any longer. “We’re engaged, actually.” She held out her left hand for Georgie to see the ring, which sparkled slightly in the reflected lights off of the dance floor.

Georgie’s eyes grew wide as she studied the ring, a soft, “ _whoa_ ” leaving her lips. Leaning back in her seat after a moment, she furrowed her brow in confusion. “So…where is he, then? Why didn’t he come with you?”

“He’s…well, he’s in space, actually,” Jemma explained, just realizing as she was saying the words how much they sounded like a lie, like something that she’d made up to explain away her baby’s father not being around. Grimacing at the fact that that was what her family would no doubt think, she went on, “He’s an engineer, and he’s working on the International Space Station at the moment, but he’ll be back next month.”

“Seriously?” Georgie asked, sounding absolutely amazed as her jaw dropped open slightly. When Jemma smiled and nodded, she said, “That’s so _cool_! You’re gonna marry an _astronaut_!”

“Yes, I guess I am,” she murmured in reply, absently stroking a hand over her rounded stomach.

“You see, I knew that what everyone was saying had to be wrong,” Georgie explained to her, rolling her eyes toward the ceiling and shrugging her shoulders. “I mean, you’re the doctor, you’re the one who lives all the way in America, and you’re like…the smartest person I know.”

“Yes, well…” Jemma let out a quiet sigh, giving a little shake of her head. “People will say what they want to, I suppose. Some of our relatives can be a little…old-fashioned, as I’m sure you know.” When Georgie widened her eyes and nodded firmly, she chuckled. “I wouldn’t be opposed to you spreading the _truth_ for me, though.”

Sitting up eagerly, Georgie nodded emphatically. “Yeah, sure!” Standing up from her seat and already heading away from the table, she went on, “Don’t worry about it, Jem!”

Laughing softly, Jemma called after her, “Thank you, Georgie!”

Left alone once more, with everyone else either on the dance floor, mingling, or getting food at the buffet, Jemma checked her phone for a response from Fitz. Seeing that she had a new email from him, she instantly felt a wash of mixed calm and relief wash over her, and she tapped on it to open it.

_Can you talk?_

She glanced around the hall, and caught sight of the door leading out of the room and into the hallway outside of it. Knowing that she wouldn’t be missed if she slipped out for just a minute (and desperately needing to hear Fitz’s voice right about now), she rose from her seat and made a beeline for the door.

Once she was out in the hallway and the door had closed behind her, muffling the music from inside, she dialed Fitz’s number and held her phone up to her ear. She waited as it rang a couple of times, but finally, he answered, “ _Hey_.”

Closing her eyes and releasing a quiet sigh, she leaned back against the wall behind her and told him, “You have no idea how wonderful it is to hear your voice right now, Fitz. I knew coming to this thing was going to be bad, but this is…” Trailing off, she shook her head.

He was quiet a moment, then said, “ _I’m sorry, Jem._ ”

Giving a little shake of her head, she told him, “No, it’s alright. I know it’s only bad now, that they’ll warm up to the idea eventually – they’re going to have to. Fortunately, it isn’t _everyone_ , though. My cousin Georgie was quite supportive about the whole thing, and I’m sure the rest will follow in time.”

“ _Well, that’s good_.”

Frowning at Fitz’s short, monotone responses, Jemma opened her eyes and straightened up from her lean against the wall. “Fitz? Is something wrong?”

His heavy sigh crackled slightly over the line, and her heart sunk in her chest. “ _I know I was supposed to be home in November, but with how things are going, the timetable for the project has been pushed out a bit._ ”

Taking a deep breath to calm her rapid heartbeat down slightly, Jemma asked shakily, “When? Will you… What about the baby?”

“ _I’ll be home before your due date,_ ” Fitz assured her, “ _they’ve set the return date for late January now_.”

Though she was relieved to find that he was going to be home before she had the baby, Jemma was absolutely crushed by the news. She’d been looking forward to having him home soon, to having him there to help her find a place for them to live, to help her take care of everything and plan for the wedding and the baby, to celebrate Christmas together, to finally be a _family_.

Pressing her thumb and forefinger to the corners of her eyes, she tried her best not to give into her emotions, but she could feel moisture beginning to soak the skin of her fingertips.

“Okay,” she finally managed to get out, the word coming out slightly croaky from the sorrow lying thick in her throat.

“ _I’m so sorry, Jemma,_ ” he whispered, sounding truly miserable. She knew that he was just as eager to be home as she was to have him there; it wasn’t just her that this news affected, after all.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Jemma insisted, trying not to let the tears now rolling down her cheeks come through in her voice. “What’s another couple of months when we have the rest of our lives together?”

“ _Jemma_ …”

It was obvious from his tone that she wasn’t fooling him at all, and she didn’t want to make him feel any worse than he no doubt already did by breaking down over the phone, so she cleared her throat and said quickly, “I’ll call you when I get back to my parents’ tonight and we’ll talk about it then, okay? I should get back inside.”

Fitz didn’t say anything at first, but then he agreed hesitantly, “ _Okay. Just…call me if you need to, yeah?_ ”

“Yeah,” she replied. “Love you.”

“ _Love you_.”

Pulling the phone away from her ear, Jemma ended the call, then dropped back against the wall once more. Letting her head fall back and closing her eyes, she finally gave into the tears, pressing one hand to her mouth to muffle the sound of her cries.

As her other hand lifted absently to press against her stomach, she felt the now familiar fluttering that meant that the baby was moving inside of her – just before what could only be a tiny kick issued from right above her belly button.

Her hand rose to cover the spot automatically, her tear-filled eyes popping open, and she froze. A couple of heartbeats later, she felt it again, this time from inside as well as from the outside, right up against her palm.

And, then Jemma truly broke down.


	8. Chapter 8

With a heavy sigh, Jemma lifted the remote and turned off the television that she’d been idly flipping through the channels on, carefully rising to her feet and shuffling into the kitchen of the flat that she shared with Daisy. Absently, she rested a hand on her rounded stomach as she peered into the refrigerator, but found nothing in there that interested her.

Then, she began to pace around the length of the kitchen, glancing every few minutes at the clock on the wall in there, but time seemed to have slowed to a crawl. She had her thirty week appointment with her OB that day, but it wasn’t for another hour, and she had absolutely no clue how to pass the time.

Her maternity leave had just started yesterday, and Jemma was already going out of her mind with boredom. She missed the lab, she missed science, and…she missed Fitz.

Releasing another quiet sigh, Jemma paused as she came to a stop in front of the little calendar hanging up on the side of the refrigerator. The date of Fitz’s original return had been circled and starred for months now, but when he’d told her last month about his extended stay, she’d crossed it out.

However, it was all still there, glaring at her from the little ‘17’ square under the month of November. She couldn’t help but feel an ache in her chest at the reminder that he was supposed to be home last weekend, the reminder that he should’ve been with her, that he should’ve been going to her appointment today to finally hold her hand as they watched their daughter on the ultrasound and heard her heartbeat filling the little room.

But, Jemma quickly shook off her emotions, blinking back the tears that had instantly burst forth as she’d felt the familiar, sharp sting of loneliness, of Fitz’s absence.

Attempting to distract herself, now from both her boredom and her sadness, Jemma opened the door of the flat, intent on taking a trip downstairs to get their mail. When she went to step outside, though, she nearly tripped right over a box that had been left on their doorstep, presumably by the mailman.

Arching her eyebrows curiously, Jemma bent over (well, as best as she could, which was still rather awkward-looking – she was just glad that there was no one around to witness it) and picked the package up, seeing her own name stamped on top of it. Stepping back inside and shutting the door behind her, she walked back over to the couch and sat down, inspecting the box further.

Finally, upon seeing the return address, a true smile spread across her lips.

Peeling off the tape and parting the flaps, Jemma found a folded slip of paper resting on top of something covered in Christmas wrapping paper. Picking up the paper first, she unfolded it and scanned the words written there.

_Jemma,_

_I know how difficult this time must be for you now that Leo’s gone and gotten himself stuck in space for another few months, so I just wanted to send you something to let you know that I’m thinking of you. Now, it was supposed to be a Christmas present, but I won’t tell if you won’t._

_And, Jemma dear, don’t you forget that if you need anything, even if it’s just to talk, you can call me. Any time of the day or night, alright? Or, if you need me, I’ll be on the road and on my way there in five minutes, tops._

_Now, you take care of yourself and my granddaughter, and I’ll talk to you soon._

_Love,  
Nora_

The heart-wrenching emptiness that had been plaguing Jemma for weeks now eased, just slightly, at the comforting words from Fitz’s mother, and she briefly closed her eyes and clasped the letter tightly in her hands, soaking in the warmth of them.

After a moment, though, she carefully refolded the letter and placed it to the side, reaching back into the box to lift the Christmas present out of it. As she gazed at the reindeer-patterned paper, she was abruptly reminded of Christmases back when she and Fitz were kids, of presents beneath the Fitz family tree wrapped in this very same paper.

Jemma let out a slightly watery laugh, unable to believe that there was still some of it left after all this time, and wondered just how much of it Fitz’s mother even _had_.

Shaking her head in amusement, she flipped the present over, sliding her forefinger under the seam of the paper to remove the tape stuck there. Doing her best to preserve it, she cautiously opened the present, until she could remove what had been resting inside of it.

It was soft and black in color, clearly made of yarn, and when Jemma flipped it over and unfolded it, it became obvious that it was a Christmas jumper, knitted by Nora Fitz herself. And, right over where the material would settle over her pregnant stomach, a red present box with a white bow was stitched into it.

Another laugh burst from Jemma’s lips, even as a couple of tears managed to break free, clinging to her lashes even as her lips curved into a smile. Standing from the couch, she stripped off the plain blue jumper that she’d been wearing, instead replacing it with her new one.

It fit perfectly, of course, and was warm and cozy in a way that no other jumper she’d ever found could seem replicate. She tucked her fingers into the sleeves, hugging her arms around herself for a moment.

Then, an idea struck her, and she picked up her phone from where it had been sitting on the coffee table, taking it into her bedroom with her. Using the full-length mirror hanging on the back of her door, she snapped a picture of herself wearing the jumper.

A moment later, she sent it off to Fitz, along with the message, _“Look at what your mum sent me for Christmas”_.

Just as the message was sending, Jemma was surprised by a text popping on her screen from Bobbi, who had agreed a handful of weeks ago to accompany her to her appointment that day.

_Stuck at work for the moment. Meet you there._

After sending a quick text back to tell Bobbi that that was alright, Jemma checked the time once more and decided to just head over to her OB’s office. At least she could wait there instead of driving herself up the wall pacing around her flat for another fifteen minutes.

It wasn’t long after she’d arrived at the office and taken a seat in the waiting room, however, that she received another text from Bobbi.

 _Sorry Jem, but I don’t think I’m gonna be able to make it_.

The warmth that had been gifted to her along with Mrs. Fitz’s jumper dissipated in an instant at the realization that she was going to be completely alone that day, and Jemma had to take a moment to compose herself, not wanting to break down in public (though, she imagined that the other expectant mothers in the waiting room wouldn’t have judged her if she had).

When she finally felt that she’d gotten a handle on her emotions, she went to reply to Bobbi, wanting to reassure her that it was alright. But, before she could, her phone buzzed with another text from her.

 _Don’t worry, I sent a replacement_.

Frowning in confusion, Jemma gazed blankly down at the message on her screen, attempting to puzzle out what that could mean, and who Bobbi could’ve sent as her “replacement”.

“Simmons!”

Glancing up sharply at the sound of her name, Jemma found none other than _Hunter_ striding across the waiting room toward her (and, she also found that everyone _else_ in the room had also looked up at his boisterous greeting). He plopped down in the chair beside her, offering her a winning smile.

“Whoa,” he commented, his eyebrows darting up his forehead as he gazed down at her stomach, “you’re getting big, huh?”

“I…” Jemma wasn’t quite sure what to say in response to that, too completely caught off-guard by Lance Hunter’s sudden appearance at _her gynecologist’s_.

He went to pick up a magazine from the little table beside his chair to leaf through, but apparently finding that they were all either women’s or baby magazines, he held up his hands as though he’d been burned. “Let’s hope I don’t need any tips from those, yeah?”

Utterly overwhelmed, all Jemma could really do was smile weakly and nod at him in response. She felt her phone vibrate against her thigh with another incoming text, and upon glancing down, she saw that it was another from Bobbi.

_Sorry, didn’t want you to be alone and he was the only person I could get on short notice. Try not to kill him, but I’ll understand if you do._

Jemma bit her lip to hold back a laugh at the message, typing out a quick reply to thank Bobbi before dropping her phone back into her purse. Even though Hunter wouldn’t have been her first choice (or her second…or third), she truly was just glad not to be alone.

Once she’d been called into the room and they were waiting for her OB to join them, Jemma watched idly from her seat on the exam table as Hunter paced about the room, eyeing some of the posters on the wall. At one of them, he made a disgusted noise and thumbed over his shoulder at it. “Well, that looks like it’d be gross and painful, don’t you think?”

Glancing from Hunter to the birthing diagram that he’d been gesturing to, Jemma arched an eyebrow and deadpanned, “I’ll let you know.”

Startled, Hunter whirled back around to face the poster once more, his eyes wide. “ _Oh_ ,” he mumbled, just as a knock on the door announced the presence of Dr. Reid.

Fortunately, Hunter managed to keep his usual comments to himself while Dr. Reid checked her over and they talked about what the next couple of months were going to look like for her. During her ultrasound, however, he drifted over to stand beside her, seemingly in shock at the image displayed on the little screen.

“ _Holy…_ ” he mumbled, his eyebrows jumping up his forehead, “that’s actually like…a little _baby_ , isn’t it?”

Laughing softly, Jemma nodded and replied, “Yes Hunter, it is.”

He planted his hands on his hips, leaning in and squinting to get a better look. “Would you look at that? She’s got fingers and toes and a _face_! You’ve got a _person_ inside you, Simmons!”

Jemma could tell that Dr. Reid was laughing in amusement now as well, even though she was trying to hide it politely behind her hand. “That’s sort of the concept, yes,” she replied, rolling her eyes fondly up at him. “Haven’t you ever seen an ultrasound before, Hunter?”

“Well, yeah, but…” He waved a hand at the screen, shaking his head in disbelief. “They’re always white blobs that everyone just _says_ look like a baby – this actually _is_ a baby. And it’s…I mean, _look_ , you can see her _moving_.”

“Yes, I know,” Jemma murmured warmly, turning her head to glance back at the screen, where her daughter was shifting about, curling her little fingers and stretching her legs. “It’s wonderful, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Hunter muttered distractedly, still gazing in awe at the baby.

He was a bit more subdued as they finished up the appointment, and when Jemma had changed back into her clothes, she found him waiting for her out in the hall, leaning up against the opposite wall.

“That jumper’s…festive,” Hunter commented as he straightened up from his lean, nodding toward the present stretched over Jemma’s stomach.

Smiling, she ran her fingertips over the soft material and nodded, explaining, “Fitz’s mum knit it for me.” As they began to head down the hall, back toward the waiting room, she asked curiously, “Is everything alright, Hunter?” Something occurred to her then that could explain his strange behavior, and she gasped, asking, “Oh my god, is Bobbi pregnant?”

“ _What_?” Hunter yelped, freezing just inside the door leading out into the building’s parking lot. “ _No_! No, no, _no_.” Shaking his head fiercely, he repeated one last time, “No,” then went quiet once more. After a moment, he finally said, “Just…hey, congratulations, Simmons. Never really gave it much thought before, but…you’re having an actual, little person, and that’s kinda huge. So…” He shrugged, then, without quite meeting her eyes, he finished, “You’re gonna be a pretty good mum, I think. And I don’t know about this Fitz character, but…congrats.”

Though Jemma would have never imagined that _Hunter_ could make her feel a bit better after the slump of depression that she’d been in since last month, she felt a flare of happiness and joy at his words. She didn’t know what it was, but somehow, seeing her pregnancy through the eyes of someone like him, seeing his almost childlike wonder at the ultrasound and hearing his congratulations… It reminded her of what this was all about, reminded her that even though Fitz wasn’t actually _there_ just then, they’d created another human being through their love, that they were going to have a daughter and be a family, no matter if he was there for the majority of her pregnancy or not.

It was a reminder that she’d desperately needed, and she couldn’t quite help the grateful smile spreading across her lips. And, well, she could think of little else to do to show her appreciation other than to step across the space between them and throw her arms around him in a hug.

“Thank you, Hunter,” she murmured, giving him a little squeeze.

He seemed bewildered by her reaction, unsure how to respond for a moment. After a brief hesitation, he lifted his arms to embrace her in return, his hands lightly pressing against her back. “Uh…you’re welcome, Simmons.” He cleared his throat, then stepped back from the hug, rubbing at the back of his neck as he added, “Don’t think this means I’m gonna want to babysit your kid though, yeah?”

Giving a laugh and rolling her eyes, Jemma elbowed him lightly in the ribs before finally pulling open the door and stepping outside into the parking lot. Over her shoulder, she shot back, “Oh, like I’d actually trust _you_ with my child.”

And, with another round of laughter bubbling out of her as she walked away from him, Jemma pretended to ignore his cries of, “What? Why? I’m responsible! Simmons, you get back here right now! Why _wouldn’t_ you trust your kid with me? Simmons? _Simmons_?”

-

“Thank you for setting this up on such short notice,” Jemma said gratefully a few days later as she followed Elena up the front porch stairs of the house for rent that she’d mentioned a couple of months ago.

“Of course,” Elena replied, brushing off Jemma’s gratitude with a shake of her head. “Mack noticed the sign on the lawn the other day, and we wanted to make sure that you got in to see it as soon as possible.”

“Now let’s just hope that everything goes well.” From the outside of the house, Jemma could tell that it had to be a similar layout to Mack and Elena’s (which she could actually _see_ from the porch – she had to admit that being close to her friends would be a major plus when it came to needing babysitters), which was already a good start; she thought that their house was wonderful.

Elena knocked on the front door then, saying with far more confidence than Jemma herself had, “It will.”

It took a moment, but then the door was opened by an older woman with graying blonde hair and a kind smile. “Hello,” she greeted, “are you my two o’clock?”

“Yes,” Elena answered, holding out her hand to the woman, “I’m Elena Rodriguez, and this is my friend Jemma Simmons; we spoke on the phone.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” the woman agreed, stepping back to let them enter the house. “Nice to meet you both, I’m Valerie Newton.”

“Nice to meet you,” Jemma replied, shaking her hand as well as she glanced around. They had entered into what was clearly the living room space, which, much like Mack and Elena’s house, was rather spacious and open, and lead into the half-kitchen, half-dining room area.

Valerie nodded down at Jemma’s rounded stomach, asking warmly, “Oh, is this your first?”

“Yes,” she answered, automatically lifting a hand to rest against her stomach. “We’re having a girl.”

“Oh, congratulations; I have two daughters, myself, both in college now. Be careful, you might blink and suddenly they’re all grown up and out of the house.”

Giving a little laugh, Jemma said, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Valerie took them on a little tour then, showing them the master bedroom, which was connected to a full bath, and the second, smaller bedroom that would serve as the nursery. Gazing into it, Jemma could already picture a crib up against the far wall, could already imagine standing in that very doorway and watching Fitz rock their daughter to sleep in a rocking chair in the corner…

By the time that they’d returned to the kitchen and had been shown the cute little backyard out beyond the back porch, Jemma was absolutely _sold_ ; this was their home, she just knew it.

She couldn’t _wait_ to tell Fitz that night.

“So, may I ask what it is that you and your fiancé do?” Valerie asked Jemma curiously as they gathered around the kitchen island, where she had a small pile of rental applications waiting.

“Oh, well, I’m a biochemist at a lab not far from here, and my fiancé is an engineer. Right now, though, he’s working on the International Space Station. I imagine that when he gets back, he’ll be working in a lab around here as well,” Jemma explained, glancing down at her phone to make sure that she’d gotten enough pictures of all the rooms to send to Fitz.

There was a beat of silence, and Jemma glanced up curiously to find Valerie gazing at her in obvious shock. “A scientist and an _astronaut_?” she asked, her eyebrows rising on her forehead. “My _goodness_ , I never imagined anyone of the sort being interested in living here when I first rented this place out!”

Fighting the urge to correct that they were _both_ scientists, Jemma laughed as she admitted, “I suppose we do sound like a pretty impressive couple when you put it like that. I do still have to talk to him, but I can’t see him not loving it as much as I did.” Taking one of the applications, she asked, “Can I get this back to you in the next couple of days?”

“Oh, of course, dear,” Valerie assured her with a nod, “I understand.” Holding her hand out to Jemma once more, she said, “I look forward to hearing from you, then.”

“Thank you for letting us take a look around,” Jemma replied, shaking her hand with a smile before following Elena back out the front door.

As they began the short walk back to their house, a grinning Elena told her, “There is no way you’re not getting that house.”

“You think so?” Jemma asked, glancing back over her shoulder at the house, a small smile tugging at her lips at the sight of it. It was painted a nice navy blue with white trim, and she could already picture a cute little garden in the front yard, maybe a swing for their daughter on that large tree there…

“She _loved_ you,” Elena assured her, “and Fitz being an astronaut really seemed to seal the deal.”

Biting her lip against the hopeful grin that was begging to burst forth, she said, “Well, we’ll see. At any rate, I still have to talk to Fitz tonight, see what he thinks. And who knows, maybe a pop star and her athlete husband will be the next ones to ask for an application and kick us right out of the running.”

They were both laughing as they entered the house, and Mack glanced up, briefly, from the television at the sound of their laughter. But, then he shook his head and said simply, “I don’t wanna know,” and it only served to make them laugh harder.

-

“Did you get them?” Jemma asked Fitz eagerly as soon as their video call connected that night.

“ _Was just about to open the email,_ ” he replied, and the light from his computer screen shone on his face as he opened a webpage to get to his email. After a couple of clicks, she could see him glancing through the pictures of the house that she’d sent him.

“What do you think?” she pressed, clasping her hands together over her baby bump. “Isn’t that second bedroom just perfect for a nursery? And once she’s a bit older, we could get one of those little playsets for the backyard, and maybe a sandbox or something.”

Fitz was quiet for another moment, but then he minimized his email to be able to see her once more and shook his head, meeting her searching gaze as he told her, “ _Jem, it’s_ perfect.”

Releasing a relieved breath, Jemma felt a wide smile spreading across her face as she murmured, “It really is, isn’t it? It’s everything that we’ve been looking for.”

“ _And it’s really within our price range?_ ” Fitz asked skeptically, arching his eyebrows.

“Yes,” she assured him. “The only problem is that there have already been quite a few people looking at it; Mack said that he sees someone new checking it out every morning that he goes to work and every evening when he gets home.”

Fitz frowned at that, nodding in understanding. “ _I’m not surprised; it’s a great place. So, it’s kind of a one-in-a-million shot that we’ll get it, huh?_ ”

“Well…” Jemma chewed her bottom lip, giving a little shrug as she explained slowly, “the landlord was rather impressed by our professions, and the fact that you’re an astronaut. It might give us a bit of an edge.”

“ _Yeah?_ ” When she nodded, he chuckled and said, “ _Hey, looks like me being in space is good for something after all_.”

She rolled her eyes at him, then held up the rental application that she’d taken with her, asking, “So…we’re filling this out and crossing our fingers, then?”

“ _Yeah, we are_ ,” Fitz answered, an excited smile curving his lips.

“Alright.” Jemma set the application down on the coffee table in front of her to begin filling it out while she was still speaking with Fitz, just in case she had any questions. But, then she swore under her breath when she realized that the pen that should’ve been there was missing. “I’ll be right back,” she told him, getting to her feet with a huff of effort to go in search of it.

“ _Are you really wearing that again?_ ” Fitz’s voice followed her as she searched the kitchen counters for the pen, knowing that Daisy always grabbed it from the living room and brought it in there with her, forgetting to replace it afterward.

“Yes, I am,” Jemma replied over her shoulder, letting out a soft, “ _a-ha_ ,” when she found the wayward pen hidden underneath a pile of papers. Reentering the living room and sitting back down on the couch, she patted the holiday jumper from his mother stretched over her belly, insisting, “It’s too warm and cozy to resist.”

“ _It’s ridiculous_ ,” he shot back, but there was a fond, if slightly exasperated, smile tugging at his lips.

Chuckling and peering up at him from where she’d started in on the application, she asked, “How much do you want to bet that your mum has one waiting for you at home with a rocket ship on it?”

Fitz groaned, dropping his head back and dragging his hands over his face. Into them, he mumbled, his voice slightly muffled, “ _I’m not taking that bet; you know you’re going to be right._ ”

“Well, I _do_ know your mum pretty well by now,” she pointed out, her shoulders still shaking with lingering laughter. “I’m sure it’ll look cute on you.” When he simply gave another pained groan in response, she insisted, “It will! You’re _adorable_ , Fitzy.”

“Jemma _!_ ”

Taking pity on him, Jemma let it go and instead focused her attention on the application. When she’d finally finished with it, she sat back and waved it front of the camera, telling him, “Finished. I’ll turn it in on Monday, and…and I’ll let you know when I hear something, alright?”

“ _Alright_ ,” Fitz replied, “ _and then, maybe, we’ll have a home together_.”

Feeling her heart swell with affection for him, and at the idea of building a home with him and their daughter someday soon, Jemma smiled and agreed softly, “Yeah, maybe we will.”

Though, she knew that even if they did end up getting the house, it wouldn’t truly be _home_ to her until he was there with her.


	9. Chapter 9

 “My goodness, this is _adorable_!” Jemma cooed as she lifted an ornament out of the cardboard box that she’d been sifting through. She held it up to show the others, giving it a little shake. “How old are you here, Mack? Five, six?”

Mack groaned, shaking his head as he snatched the ornament with a picture of him at a very young age dressed up like an elf pasted onto it. “I was five.” Turning to a smirking Elena, he arched an eyebrow and asked pointedly, “ _What_ is this doing here? I told you we were leaving this at my parents’ place.”

“It was too precious not to put on our tree,” Elena insisted, taking the ornament from Mack and carefully placing it on one of the branches of the Christmas tree in their living room that Jemma and Daisy were helping to decorate. “Besides, your mother gave it to me.”

In response, Mack simply gave another groan, and a grinning Daisy asked, “Do you still have that costume?”

Fortunately, Mack was saved from having to respond to Daisy’s tease when a knock issued on the front door, followed shortly by it opening to reveal Bobbi and Hunter. “Sorry we’re late,” she told them. Thumbing at Hunter beside her, she explained, “The Grinch here took _forever_ to get ready.”

“It’s the first day of December; you’ve got a whole _month_ to decorate,” Hunter griped as he plopped onto the couch beside Jemma.

“Oh come on, Hunter,” Daisy said, stepping over to drape tinsel around his neck, “get in the Christmas spirit!”

Teasingly, Jemma pointed out, “Given last year’s Christmas party, I believe it takes a couple glasses of eggnog for Hunter to find his Christmas spirit.”

“You’re right about that,” Bobbi agreed with a laugh, “his rendition of White Christmas _was_ very spirited."

Narrowing his eyes suspiciously, Hunter asked her, “You don’t still have that video, do you?” When she simply laughed in response, he cried, “Bobbi! You swore to me that you deleted it! _Bobbi_!”

Chuckling at her friends’ antics, Jemma turned to Mack and Elena, asking curiously, “Where are you guys celebrating this year?”

“We’re spending a couple of days with my family, then a couple with Yo-Yo’s,” Mack answered as he attempted to untangle a string of lights. Glancing toward his girlfriend, he added jokingly, “Though, I’m not sure if I should keep bringing her around my mom if they’re gonna keep conspiring against me like this.”

As she was walking past him to grab a few more ornaments to hang, Elena popped up on her toes and kissed his cheek, replying confidently, “You love that she loves me.”

Mack grinned, giving in easily and telling her, “Yeah, I do.”

Though seeing her friends happy made Jemma happy, she had to glance down at her lap then to try and hide the sudden wave of sadness that swept over her in response to their casual affection. Though it hardly seemed possible, as the holidays began to grow closer and closer, she found herself missing Fitz even more than usual. For some time, she’d thought that they’d get to spend Christmas together, to celebrate the holiday for the first time as a couple (and simply together for the first time in _years_ ) and as a family – _in the same place_. But, now, he was still in space, and though she had her friends there, it just wasn’t the same.

And, given that she was going to be over eight months pregnant by the time the holiday rolled around, she wouldn’t even be able to fly to England to spend it with her family, and she knew that Mack and Elena, and Bobbi and Hunter were going to be leaving to visit their families.

However, Daisy was going to be staying put as well, and had promised Jemma that they’d celebrate Christmas together, which she greatly appreciated. After all, it was going to be hard enough to get through the day without Fitz, let alone if she’d had to spend the entire day alone.

“Hey!” Daisy cried suddenly, beaming as she pulled something out of one of the boxes of decorations. She placed a Santa hat on top of her head, and planted her hands on her hips, nodding decisively. “Okay, _now_ it’s December.” Taking out her phone, she snapped a photo of herself in the hat, then turned to Jemma and said, “Oh my gosh, can you imagine all the cute little Christmas outfits you can put the baby in next year? I fully expect to get a Christmas card from you next December that has me melting into a puddle.”

“Maybe you should dress her up as an elf,” Elena put in, smirking when Mack shot her a dry look for the comment.

“And you and Fitz can be Mr. and Mrs. Claus!” Daisy added. “That would be so _cute_!”

Laughing, Jemma told her, “I know that you don’t know Fitz very well yet, but I promise you that he would _never_ go for that. Dressing the baby up? Sure. Dressing up himself? Not in a million years.”

“Oh, we’ll convince him,” she insisted, “Fitz hasn’t really met me yet; I can be _very_ persuasive.”

“We know,” Bobbi reminded her, chuckling fondly.

“Who’s bloody phone is that?” Hunter said suddenly, and a frowning Mack turned down the volume on the Christmas music that had been playing in the background. Sure enough, a phone could be heard ringing from their kitchen.

“Oh!” Jemma cried, struggling to get to her feet. “That’s me.” Standing the closest to her, Daisy and Bobbi each gave her a hand standing, and she hurried into the kitchen to grab her phone just before it could go to voicemail. “Hello?” she answered, slightly out of breath.

“ _Hello, is this Jemma Simmons?_ ” a woman asked.

“This is she,” Jemma replied, leaning back against the island in Mack and Elena’s kitchen.

“ _Oh, hello dear! This is Valerie Newton, calling about the rental property that you filled out an application for_.”

Jemma’s heart leapt in her chest, but she tried to tamp down on her hope, replying, “Oh yes, hello Valerie. Thank you for getting back to me so soon.”

“ _Of course, of course. I just wanted to let you know as soon as possible that you and your fiancé were approved, and that you can come on over and sign the lease whenever you’re available_.”

For a moment, she was speechless, even though all of her friends had insisted for days now that she and Fitz were practically guaranteed the house. It simply seemed to be too good to be true when everything else appeared to have been going so horribly lately. Finally, she asked in disbelief, “We…we got it?”

On the other line, Valerie laughed, assuring her, “ _Yes, you got it. Truly, I couldn’t imagine the house going to a more impressive and more importantly, a more_ deserving _couple._ ”

“Oh thank you, thank you,” Jemma told her, letting out a disbelieving little laugh and shaking her head. “I…I can come sign the lease Monday around noon, if that works for you?”

“ _Sure thing, dear. I’ll see you then, and I hope you have a good weekend._ ”

“Thank you, you too,” she replied before hanging up the phone. For a moment, she simply stood there, still slightly taken aback.

But, then Daisy called over the back of the couch, “Everything alright out there?” and she snapped out of it, beaming and hurrying back to join the others.

“We got the house!” she cried, clasping her hands together under her chin.

As her friends all began congratulating her, all Jemma could think was that she couldn’t wait to tell Fitz, and that she couldn’t _wait_ to start building a home with him – and, today, they’d taken the first step to finally making that happen.

-

“ _Ugh_ , what do you have in here, Jem? Bricks?”

Rolling her eyes at Daisy’s theatrics, Jemma tapped her neat handwriting on the top of the cardboard box that she was carrying, pointing out, “They’re my biology texts, Daisy, and they can go in the living room for now.”

“Good.” With that, Daisy unceremoniously dropped the box onto the floor in front of her, ignoring the less than pleased look that Jemma shot her. Then, she turned to head back outside to bring in another box, stepping back out of the way as Mack and Hunter entered the house carrying her mattress.

It had only been a week since Jemma had found out that they’d gotten the house, and then later signed the lease, but her friends had all rallied together to help her get moved in as soon as possible. And, she was completely grateful for all of the help – especially since she couldn’t exactly do much of the moving herself at the moment.

Though it felt rather…lonely moving into the house by herself, Jemma was trying to push that to the side and instead focus on getting it all ready for when Fitz came home, determined to truly give him a _home_ to come back to.

“Alright,” Bobbi called as she entered the house, carrying a box in her arms, “it’s marked clothes, but is that clothes for you, or the baby?”

“Probably mine, but let me just check,” Jemma replied, stepping over to crack open the flaps and peer into the box. “Yes, they’re mine; our bedroom is to the right.”

“Gotcha,” she answered, turning to go through the door on the left that led to the master bedroom, returning a moment later to go back for another box.

Sidelined as she was, Jemma had been sifting through the boxes that had already brought in, so she went back to that, grabbing another few of her books and arranging them on the bookshelf that had already been set up in the living room. She’d been putting them in order by subject, and subcategorizing by author in alphabetical order, but she had fully committed to it yet, given that she didn’t have any of Fitz’s books there yet.

“My goodness, this place is _adorable_.”

Surprised, Jemma glanced up to find Nora Fitz coming through the front door and looking around the house as though she’d been summoned by Jemma’s thoughts, a cardboard box in her hands with a container of what appeared to be Christmas cookies balanced on top of it. “Oh, Nora! You’re early!” Hurrying over, she attempted to take the box from her, but a narrowed-eyed Nora refused to hand it over.

“I may be old, sweetheart, but I’m not _that_ old that I need a heavily pregnant woman carrying boxes for me,” Nora told her pointedly. “Besides, it _is_ just some of Leo’s clothes, not those big heavy textbooks of his – I’ll have one of your friends get _that_ box.” She carried the box into the kitchen, placing it on the counter, then complimented once more, “This house is simply perfect, Jemma. I can’t believe you found such a nice one for your first house; my first place was an absolute _disaster_.”

Laughing, Jemma replied, “Well, thank you. It was actually my friends Mack and Elena that found it, though – they live just down the street.”

“They did good, then.” Nora was quite a moment, studying her carefully, then she asked in a low, concerned voice, “How are you doing, hon?”

“I’m…” Jemma gave a small sigh, then shrugged, murmuring, “I’m hanging in there, just as I’m sure that you are.”

Nora nodded in understanding, wrapping a comforting arm around Jemma’s shoulders and giving her a little squeeze. “He’ll be back before we both know it, sweetheart. And, then he’ll get to come home to you and this beautiful new house, and just in time to see this precious little baby come into the world.” With that, she placed her free hand over Jemma’s bulging belly, smiling warmly.

“Yes, that’s what I do my best to try and remember,” Jemma agreed, always eternally grateful that she had Nora around to not only understand what she was going through, but also to lift her back up when it all seemed to be too much. Truthfully, she didn’t know how she could’ve gotten through all of this time without Fitz if she hadn’t had his mother.

“Nora!”

They both glanced up at Daisy’s excited greeting as she reentered the house with another box in hand, and a chuckling Nora replied, “Ah, good to see you again, dear. Have you been taking good care of Jemma and my granddaughter?”

“Trying to,” Daisy answered with a teasing grin, “Jemma can be _pretty_ determined when it comes to being independent.”

Jemma let out an insulted huff at that, no matter how true it was, but both Daisy and Nora simply laughed at it, Nora nodding in clear agreement with Daisy’s statement.

“So, are you girls spending Christmas with your friends, then?” Nora asked them curiously, adding to Jemma, “I know your mum said that you couldn’t fly home this year.”

“Actually, it’s just us,” Daisy answered with a shrug as she set her box down as well, making an immediate beeline for the cookies. She pried the lid off of the container, grabbing one that appeared to be shaped like a snowflake and taking a bite. Around a mouthful of it, she explained, “All of our friends are going off to spend it with family, but Jem and I are still gonna have a _great_ time.”

“What about you, Nora?” Jemma asked. “What with Fitz not being home, do you have any other big plans?”

“I imagine I’ll just stay in, sit by the fire and work on this year’s jumper for Fitz,” Nora answered. In a mock-whisper, she told them, “Don’t tell him I told you this, but it’s going to be _out of this world_.”

In response, Jemma bit her lip to hold back a laugh as she imagined Fitz’s face when he eventually opened what she was now sure had to be a rocket ship jumper. She really needed to make sure to take pictures.

“Hey,” Daisy said suddenly, “why don’t you come hang out with us? We can drink eggnog and eat some more of these _amazing_ cookies, and Jemma can probably send a bunch of pictures of all of us to Fitz and tell him that his mom’s more fun to hang out with than him or something.”

“Oh _yes_ ,” Jemma agreed instantly, “I can’t believe that I didn’t think of that myself; we’d love to have you, Nora.”

“Well, then I’d love to join you girls, thank you both,” Nora replied, offering them both a warm smile and giving Jemma’s shoulders another little squeeze. To Daisy, she then asked, “Now, dear, could you give me a hand with something?”

“Sure thing,” Daisy agreed easily, following Nora through the house and out the front door.

While they were gone, Jemma curiously cracked open the box of Fitz’s clothes that Nora had left on the counter, and had to take a moment to collect herself when she was bombarded with the smell of _Fitz_. It’d been nearly eight months that she’d been apart from him, and though they spoke all the time, it simply wasn’t the same as having him physically _there_ ; she hadn’t realized until just then that she’d missed his scent so _much_ , and it brought tears to her eyes.

“Hey, Jemma, check this out!”

Blinking back the tears and rearranging the flaps so that the box was closed once more, Jemma took a steadying breath before turning back around. She found Daisy and Nora carrying a folded up crib into the house, the old wood polished to look practically like new.

“It’s Leo’s old crib,” Nora explained, “he told me that he didn’t think you had one yet, and I just had this lying around the house, so I figured I’d bring it up for you.”

“Oh _Nora_ ,” Jemma murmured, the tears coming back in an instant as she moved closer to more closely inspect the crib, which she now knew had once belonged to her best friend and the love of her life when he was just a baby. There were a few little nicks here and there in the wood, and there were a couple of old, fading stickers of cartoon puppies stuck to the posts.

It was one of the most wonderful things that Jemma had ever laid eyes on, and meant _far_ more than any crib that she could’ve gone out and picked up herself.

“It’s _perfect_ ,” Jemma told her, swiping any a tear that had managed to slip past her defenses and roll down her cheek. “Thank you so much. Oh, I just love it.”

“I’m glad, sweetheart,” Nora told her warmly, briefly setting her side of the crib down to catch Jemma’s hand in hers, giving it a small squeeze.

“Thank you,” Jemma repeated, unable to say anything else and truly touched by the gesture, and by how Nora just always seemed to know exactly what she needed – it was definitely a trait that she shared with her son.

“Don’t mention it, Jemma, truly, I was happy to do it,” Nora assured her, giving her hand another squeeze before picking her side of the crib back up. “Now, how about we go see how this looks in there?”

Jemma nodded, agreeing, “Alright, though I’m already sure that I’m going to love it.”

“Let’s get this to the nursery, then,” Daisy said, nodding to the hallway on their left, which led to the second bedroom that they were going to be using as the baby’s nursery. Jemma followed them there, and between the three of them, they managed to get it unfolded and all set up in no time.

“How does it look, dear?” Nora asked Jemma as they stepped back to admire the crib.

Even though the only other thing in the room at the moment was a few scattered boxes of baby things that she’d collected already, the sight of the crib set up off to the side of the room, exactly where she’d imagined it when she’d first seen the house, had emotion welling up inside of Jemma.

Though everything about her pregnancy and having a baby with Fitz was very real, suddenly it all just seemed to hit her at once. This was the crib where her child, _their_ child, was going to be sleeping in a matter of months, this was the room where their daughter would begin her life, where they would change her and dress her and rock her to sleep.

It made everything about her pregnancy somehow, startlingly, even _more_ real.

“It’s…it’s perfect,” Jemma murmured, unable to think of a better word to describe the sight of the crib in their daughter’s nursery, to describe the feeling that it had inspired in her.

“I think so too,” Nora assured her warmly, “and I’m sure that Leo will as well.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” she replied softly, already picturing Fitz’s reaction to what would soon be the finished nursery, quite sure that he’d feel exactly the same way about it that she did.

After all, he was the only other person in the world (or, well, in and _outside_ the world, as it was just then) that could understand the deep, all-consuming love and adoration that she held within her for their daughter.

-

The sky had just begun to darken when everything had finally been brought into the house and placed in its proper rooms, and it wasn’t much longer after that that everyone else headed back home – though Mack and Elena were quick to assure Jemma that they were there if she needed anything.

Once she was alone in the house, however, Jemma was hit with just _how_ alone she really felt after being surrounded by her friends all day long, and after rooming with Daisy for years now.

The familiar loneliness of the last few months swept over her then as it often did, which she would usually combat with giving Fitz a call or asking him if he was available for a video call, as seeing his face or hearing his voice did wonders to chase away the ache in her heart caused by his absence, if only temporarily.

However, knowing that Fitz was working and wouldn’t be able to talk that night, Jemma instead opened an email and typed out a brief message to him for now, intending to write a longer and more detailed one about her day for him before she went to bed.

_Everything’s moved into the house – now to find places for all of it. I think I know what I’m going to be doing for the next few weeks; it’s a good thing I’m on maternity leave and have plenty of free time._

She sent the email, then set her phone down, taking a leisurely little walk throughout the house to try and get a better idea of how she wanted to arrange things, and also trying to take her mind off of how big and empty the house seemed all of a sudden. When she reached their bedroom, however, she caught sight of a pile of boxes in the corner, Fitz’s familiar scribbled handwriting on the side reading ‘ _clothes_ ’.

Thinking about the one that she had briefly opened earlier, about how the clothing had carried his scent, thinking about how the last person to touch those clothes, to wear them, had been _Fitz_ , Jemma walked over to them. She opened one, which she found was filled with sloppily folded jumpers and t-shirts.

Smiling softly, she picked up one of the jumpers, thumbing at the soft, warm material. Then, she lifted it to her nose, closing her eyes and taking a whiff of his unique blend of solder, some sort of cologne or aftershave that he must’ve started wearing after they’d fallen out of touch, and what was simply and familiarly _Fitz_.

After a moment, she set the jumper down on the bed, stripping out of the shirt that she’d been wearing and instead replacing it with his jumper. It was a bit of a stretch around her rounded stomach (Fitz wasn’t exactly the biggest of men, after all), but it was still perfect.

It was somehow far comfier and cozier than anything she’d ever owned, and Jemma simply felt…content, comforted in the jumper, tucking her fingers in the sleeves and letting her eyes slip closed as she was surrounded by warmth and the smell of Fitz.

In a way, it almost felt like having him there with her, like being wrapped up in his embrace, and she folded her arms around herself.

Yes, Jemma was well aware that it wasn’t him, and that she was still alone, but it was more than she’d had yesterday, and it was closer to him than she’d been in _months_.

For now, for the remaining month and a half that she was going to have to spend without him, it was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> You can also find me on tumblr - I'm theartofbeinganerd over there as well!


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